RIGHTS GROUPS BLAST PROPOSED EU ONLINE TERRORIST CONTENT LAW

More than 60 civil rights groups have argued that the potential EU terrorist content law, to be voted on in a month, puts fundamental rights at risk, Deutsche Welle reported.

The European Commission's proposal to force Google, Facebook, and Twitter to remove terrorist content within an hour is seen as a risk to fundamental rights, they argued.

"We urge the European Parliament to reject this proposal, as it poses serious threats to freedom of expression and opinion," the groups stated in a letter sent to members of the European Parliament.

The civil rights groups include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Civil Liberties Union for Europe, and the European Federation of Journalists.

After a series of attacks in 2018 by radicalized lone-wolf attackers, with online terrorist content seen as a contributing factor, the European Commission drafted the legislation to be voted on next month.

"The spread of radical ideologies and terrorist guidance material accelerates through the use of online propaganda, with the use of social media often becoming an integral part of the attack itself," the European Commission said in its Counter-Terrorism Agenda in December last year.

Human rights groups claimed removing this bias is impossible using automated systems.

The pressure put on the online platforms to remove terrorist content within the hour will have unintended consequences where automated content moderation tools would be put to use, such as upload filters.

It would not be possible for humans to filter the material that quickly. And content that is not promoting terrorist ideologies would get snagged, they say. "It is impossible for automated tools to consistently differentiate activism, counter-speech, and satire," the groups said, adding "increased automation will ultimately result in the removal of legal content about discriminatory treatment of minorities."

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