Europe wants terrorist propaganda offline within one hour

Internet companies must remove terrorist propaganda within one hour. The European Commission presented this proposal today in the context of the State of the Union. “One hour is the critical time within which the greatest damage can be caused”, according to President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Commission is already cooperating on a voluntary basis with the major internet companies to reduce the presence of hateful messages as much as possible. But according to the Commission, this cooperation remains inadequate when it comes to terrorist content.

That is why the Commission has now drawn up a regulation requiring internet platforms to act within one hour when they receive a removal order from national authorities in the European Union. Companies that ignore such orders risk a fine of up to four percent of their worldwide sales.

Terrorist content is defined in the Regulation as material that calls for terrorist crimes, praises terrorist activities or teaches techniques to commit terrorist acts. To protect freedom of expression, the proposal also includes complaints mechanisms and legal possibilities for platforms and content providers to challenge removal orders.