Today the European Parliament and the German Presidency in the Council reached a political agreement that ensures terrorist content that is posted online is removed within one hour. The agreement puts in place common EU rules for removing terrorist content, while at the same time guaranteeing safeguards for crucial fundamental rights such as freedom of speech.

Marina Kaljurand, S&D negotiator on the file, said:

“In today’s world, the fight against terrorism is now as much online as it is offline. Today’s agreement is a real breakthrough in the online fight against terrorism with new rules that make sure hosting service providers like Google or Facebook remove online terrorist content as quickly as possible.

“Terrorists will always seek to undermine our free and open democracies but we will never allow that to happen. The agreement today strengthens our security without giving up on fundamental principles like freedom of expression. We have ensured that the agreement today will not include any obligation to use automated filtering, and that educational, journalistic, artistic or research content will be protected.  

“Online content is cross-border by nature and we value the hard work and cooperation across borders that already takes place between authorities in the fight against terrorism. But in the negotiations, we worked hard to improve cooperation and make the removal of terrorist content online legally watertight by ensuring member state authorities where the hosting provider is located are involved in the removal process from the beginning and have the final word on removing content.”