EU abandoning internet policing to private companies http://euobserver.com/9/32044

The European Commission's drive to have public policy carried out by companies risks creating an internet policed by private corporations and no judicial recourse for those affected by their decisions, say digital rights campaigners.With proposals due out this year that affect online rights, Joe McNamee, advocacy officer at European Digital Rights, an umbrella organisation for privacy and civil rights organisations, believes the commission is seeking to abdicate its responsibility to uphold fundamental rights online by having companies to do it instead."Large chunks of the commission ... are actually inventing ways of pushing the enforcement of regulation, and therefore the understanding of the law, into the private sphere," said McNamee in an interview.

According to McNamee, current internal thinking in the commission would see EU-funded hotlines that receive complaints about websites that may contain content involving child abuse contact the internet providers to delete the website, thus bypassing law enforcement authorities completely. This, he argues, would inadvertently facilitate the perceived inaction by some member-state police forces towards online child abuse.

"I asked the question: 'Are you actually serious? Are you saying that there are actually police forces in the EU that will not take action if they receive complaints about child abuse material being hosted in their jurisdiction? And the commission's answer to this is to facilitate this by working around it and having the provider take the entirely cosmetic measure of removing the website'."McNamee believes this would lead to a dangerous spiral of the police not bothering to do anything because they know the symptom will be treated and criminals relying on the fact that the biggest threat is the inconvenience of having their website removed. Meanwhile, if the website in question is not actually illegal, then those concerned have no clear judicial recourse.