Policing the Internet

Policing the Internet? Presented by: Dr Julia Hörnle (Professor of Internet Law) The "book" to the film - LLM Module • SOLM212 Illegal Speech, Censorship and Digital Rights: Social Media vs "Old" Media - TRT World The Roundtable "Policing the Internet" Between Intermediary Liability and Immunity in the EU - Art 12 E-commerce Directive 2000/31/EC • Access to and transmission in communications network • ⇒Immunity from liability • Art 12 (3) Specific orders by an administrative order or court to require internet blocking of content - Art 14 E-commerce Directive 2000/31/EC • Hosting, storage, linking • Actual knowledge of illegal activity or apparent from all the circumstances • Notice & Take-down - Bunt v Tilley [2007] 1 WLR 1243 (QB)- English Courts - EU Case C-70/10 Scarlet Extended SA v SABAM [2012] ECDR 4 - Ahmet Yildrim v Turkey Judgment of 18. December 2012 (ECtHR- Council of Europehuman rights court) - Delfi AS v Estonia [2015] EMLR 26 (ECHR) Intermediary Liability (US) - US Federal Law 47 USCA §230 (c) (1): no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider • ⇒ Complete immunity for both internet access and hosting services (not from federal criminal law) • ⇒1st Amendment and free speech see Reno v ACLU 521 US 844 • ⇒Zeran v AOL 129 F3d 327 (4th Cir 1997); Blumenthal v Drudge 992 SUPP 44, 49-53 (DDC 1998); Batzel v Smith 333 F3d 1018 (9th Cir 2003) The Evils of the Internet - Child exploitation; - Terrorist content; - Organized immigration crime; - Modern slavery; - Extreme pornography; - Revenge pornography; - Spread of misinformation - Harassment & Cyberstalking; - Hate crime; - Encouragement to suicide; - Violence incitement; - Sales of weapons or drugs; - Sexting between minors From Immunity to Gatekeeper - PROBLEM OF IMMUNITY BASED SYSTEM - "New Zealand shooting: More than 200 users watched live stream video of Christchurch mosque attacks, but nobody reported it, says Facebook" Headline in South China Morning Post - What can be done?? - - Notice & Take-down too slow? • Speed it up • Recognition of images through hashes • Automated content recognition and immediate removal/prevention of upload? Manual checking impossible? • Facebook Video "The Cleaners" • Use of artificial intelligence, data mining to proactively filter for illegal content? • Clashes with freedom of expression • Cannot recognize irony, satire, humor, parody • Most dangerous posts are not the most violent - Audio-visual Media Services Directive (EU) 2018/18 - Co-regulation of video-sharing platforms hosting user-generated content - Art 28b four types of content must be regulated in law - • Public provocation to commit a terrorist offence • Child pornography • Racism & xenophobia • Incitement to violence of hatred against protected group Self-regulation: flagging systems, age-verification, complaints handling, digital literacy Gatekeeper Regulation - Gatekeepers are "entities that decide who shall pass through the gate" - Mass media content and editorial control - Inverse: lack of control by content providers online (user-generated content) - Local intermediaries as gatekeepers have no control over illegal information or activities but are in a position to prevent or minimize distribution - German concept of Störerhaftung Riccardo Rolex case - Immunity of intermediaries in the late 1990s => Late 2010s legal responsibilities on intermediaries as gatekeepers UK Government White Paper "Online Harms" April 2019 - Safety standards: "online safety"? - Regulator- Ofcom? - DUTY OF CARE - Framework legislation (duty of care) and Codes of Conduct (detail) - Notion of age-appropriate content - Social media providers and platforms: "The regulatory framework will apply to companies that provide services or tools that allow, enable or facilitate users to share or discover user- generated content, or interact with each other online." - Enforcement?? • CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS • ISP WEBSITE BLOCKING • COMPLAINTS HANDLING SYSTEMS Co-and Self-Regulation?? - Good faith of social media companies - Twitter taking down Trumps comments; Facebook refusing to do so?