On 16 October, over 50 NGOs representing human rights and media freedom (see the full list below) sent an open letter to the European Commission President, the European Parliament (EP) and the Council asking them to delete the censorship filter proposal (Article 13), as it “would violate the freedom of expression set out in (…) the Charter of Fundamental Rights” and “provoke such legal uncertainty that online services will have no other option than to monitor, filter and block EU citizens’ communications“. It is especially striking that organisations such as Reporters without Borders and Human Rights Watch, which are known to intervene for the protection of human rights in less democratic countries, have now been moved to the point where they felt the need to voice their concerns in this matter to ensure that EU citizens are safeguarded from the EU’s copyright agenda crushing their fundamental rights.

The letter also warns that “If EU legislation conflicts with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, national constitutional courts are likely to be tempted to disapply it and we can expect such a rule to be annulled by the Court of Justice“, and refers in this context to precedents such as the Data Retention Directive.

This letter is another strong signal to policymaker to stop the madness at play in the on-going copyright reform and to ensure that fundamental rights of EU citizens are upheld. Seven Member States, including Germany (see here and here), as well as a wide range of respected academics (see here, here, and here) have already expressed their concerns about the censorship filter, and now fundamental and digital rights NGOs have joined the chorus.

This call to the EU Institutions to get their act together comes just in time, ahead of the upcoming vote in the EP’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee on the Opinion by Rapporteur MEP Michal Boni (EPP, Poland) . The LIBE Committee is the last one to provide an Opinion to the lead Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee, and will thus send an important signal to the lead Rapporteur MEP Axel Voss (EPP, Germany) on how to move forward in his discussions with the Shadow Rapporteurs. It is noteworthy that when deciding on the appropriate measures to take when combating terrorism, the EU institutions deemed pre-emptive filters to be disproportionate, something that seems to have slipped their mind in this discussion.

Joe McNamee, Executive Director of EDRi, warns that:

A quick reminder: the EC put forward a censorship filter (Article 13 – see our video) compelling all online intermediaries hosting any type of user-uploaded content to prevent the availability of potential copyright-infringing material on their platform by implementing, in cooperation with the rightholders, effective automated content filtering technologies that block these uploads, and this under the pretence of solving the ‘value gap’ (see our video on that myth). This proposal unscrupulously brushes aside the e-Commerce Directive and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and freely reinterprets case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Signatories of the Open Letter

What others are saying

• ActiveWatch – Trei organizatii din România cer UE sa nu cenzureze Internetul
• APADOR-CH – Trei organizatii din România cer UE sa nu cenzureze Internetul
• ApTI – 57 de organizatii europene cer eliminarea masinii de cenzura a Internetului
• CCIA – EU Council rebukes EU Commission for its copyright proposal, asks for more explanations on the e-Commerce Directive
• CDT – CDT and More than 50 Human Rights Organisations Call on EU Lawmakers to Reject Upload Filters
• COMMUNIA – Strong voice of civil liberties organisations against censorship in copyright framework
• EDRi – Civil society calls for the deletion of the #censorshipmachine
• EFF – Digital Rights Groups Demand Deletion of Unlawful Filtering Mandate From Proposed EU Copyright Law
• Index on Censorship – Article 13: Monitoring and filtering of internet content is unacceptable
• OpenMedia – Open Letter: 57 NGOs ask for deletion of EU copyright censorship filter

Other press coverage

• CircleID – Civil Society Groups Call for Deletion of Internet Filtering Provision in EU Copyright Proposal
• Engadget – Digital rights groups speak out against EU plan to scan online content
• iTnews – Opposition grows against EU’s proposed ISP upload filtering
• IPPro The Internet – Article 13 of DSM proposals should be deleted, says the EFF
• IP Watch – Brief: 56 Groups Call For Deletion Of Internet Filtering Provision In EU Copyright Proposal
• The Inquirer – 57 rights groups back anti-Article 13 letter to the European Parliament
• Torrentfreak – Abandon Proactive Copyright Filters, Huge Coalition Tells EU Heavyweights