30 Amendments of Sergio GUTIÉRREZ PRIETO related to 2018/0331(COD)

Proposal for a regulation
Recital 7

(7) This Regulation contributes to the protection of public security while establishing appropriate and robust safeguards to ensure protection of the fundamental rights at stake. This includes the rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data, the right to effective judicial protection, the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to receive and impart information, the freedom to conduct a business, and the principle of non-discrimination. Competent authorities and hosting service providers should only adopt measures which are necessary, appropriate and proportionate within a democratic society, taking into account the particular importance accorded to the freedom of expression and information, which constitutes one of the essential foundations of a pluralist, democratic society, and is one of the values on which the Union is founded. Measures constituting interference in the freedom of expression and information should be strictly ~~targeted, in the sense that they must serv~~necessary and proportionate to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content, but without ~~thereby~~ affecting freedom of expression, the right to lawfully receive and impart information, taking into account the central role of hosting service providers in facilitating public debate and the distribution and receipt of facts, opinions and ideas in accordance with the law.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10

(10) In order to cover those online hosting services where terrorist content is disseminated, this Regulation should apply, to the extent that it is possible to identify and remove specific content that is the subject of this Regulation, to information society services which store information provided by a recipient of the service at his or her request and in processing and making the information stored available to third parties, irrespective of whether this activity is of a mere technical, automatic and passive nature. By way of example such providers of information society services include social media platforms, video streaming services, video, image and audio sharing services, file sharing and other cloud services to the extent they make the information available to third parties and websites where users can make comments or post reviews. The Regulation should also apply to hosting service providers established outside the Union but offering services within the Union, since a significant proportion of hosting service providers exposed to terrorist content on their services are established in third countries. This should ensure that all companies operating in the Digital Single Market comply with the same requirements, irrespective of their country of establishment. The determination as to whether a service provider offers services in the Union requires an assessment whether the service provider enables legal or natural persons in one or more Member States to use its services. However, the mere accessibility of a service provider’s website or of an email address and of other contact details in one or more Member States taken in isolation should not be a sufficient condition for the application of this Regulation.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Recital 16

(16) Given the scale and speed necessary for effectively identifying and removing terrorist content, proportionate proactive measures, including by using automated means in certain cases, are an essential element in tackling terrorist content online. With a view to reducing the accessibility of terrorist content on their services, hosting service providers should assess whether it is appropriate to take proactive measures depending on the risks and level of exposure to terrorist content as well as to the effects on the rights of third parties and the public interest of information. Consequently, hosting service providers should determine what justified, appropriate, effective and proportionate proactive measure should be put in place. This requirement should not imply a general monitoring obligation applying in an indiscriminate or unlimited manner. In the context of this assessment, the absence of removal orders and referrals addressed to a hosting provider, is an indication of a low level of exposure to terrorist content.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19

(19) Following the request, the competent authority should enter into a dialogue with the hosting service provider about the necessary proactive measures to be put in place. If necessary, the competent authority should impose the adoption of appropriate, effective and proportionate proactive measures where it considers that the measures taken are insufficient to meet the risks based on appropriate, sufficient and relevant evidence. A decision to impose such specific proactive measures should not, in principle, lead to the imposition of a general obligation to monitor, as provided in Article 15(1) of Directive 2000/31/EC. Considering the particularly grave risks associated with the dissemination of terrorist content, the decisions adopted by the competent authorities on the basis of this Regulation could derogate from the approach established in Article 15(1) of Directive 2000/31/EC, as regards certain specific, targeted measures, the adoption of which is necessary for overriding public security reasons. Before adopting such decisions, the competent authority should strike a fair balance between the public interest objectives and the fundamental rights involved, in particular, the freedom of expression and information and the freedom to conduct a business, and provide appropriate justification.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Recital 20

(20) The obligation on hosting service providers to preserve removed content and related data, should be laid down for specific purposes ~~and~~, limited in time to what is necessary and where this involves personal data, ensure it is duly protected. There is need to extend the preservation requirement to related data to the extent that any such data would otherwise be lost as a consequence of the removal of the content in question. Related data can include data such as ‘subscriber data’, including in particular data pertaining to the identity of the content provider as well as ‘access data’, including for instance data about the date and time of use by the content provider, or the log-in to and log- off from the service, together with the IP address allocated by the internet access service provider to the content provider.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Recital 34

(34) In the absence of a general requirement for service providers to ensure a physical presence within the territory of the Union, there is a need to ensure clarity under which Member State's jurisdiction the hosting service provider offering services within the Union falls. As a general rule, the hosting service provider falls under the jurisdiction of the Member State in which it has its main establishment or in which it has designated a legal representative. Nevertheless, where another Member State issues a removal order, its authorities should be able to enforce their orders by taking coercive measures of a non-punitive nature, such as penalty payments. With regards to a hosting service provider which has no establishment in the Union and does not designate a legal representative, any Member State should, nevertheless, be able to issue penalties, provided that the principle of ne bis in idem is respected.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Recital 38

(38) Penalties are necessary to ensure the effective implementation by hosting service providers of the obligations pursuant to this Regulation. Member States should adopt rules on penalties, including, where appropriate, fining guidelines. PWhile mindful of keeping a fair balance between the fundamental rights of all parties, particularly severe penalties shall be ascertained in the event that the hosting service provider systematically fails to remove terrorist content or disable access to it ~~within one hour from~~as promptly as possible after receipt of a removal order. Non-compliance in individual cases could be sanctioned while respecting the principles of ne bis in idem and of proportionality and ensuring that such sanctions take account of systematic failure. In order to ensure legal certainty, the regulation should set out to what extent the relevant obligations can be subject to penalties. Penalties for non-compliance with Article 6 should only be adopted in relation to obligations arising from a request to report pursuant to Article 6(2) or a decision imposing additional proactive measures pursuant to Article 6(4). When determining whether or not financial penalties should be imposed, due account should be taken of the financial resources of the provider. Member States shall ensure that penalties do not encourage the removal of content which is not terrorist content.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Recital 41

(41) Member States should collect information on the implementation of the legislation, including on policies, terms and conditions and transparency reports of hosting service providers. A detailed programme for monitoring the outputs, results and impacts of this Regulation should be established in order to inform an evaluation of the legislation.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point b

(b) a set of measures to be put in place by Member States to identify terrorist content, to enable its swift removal by hosting service providers and to facilitate cooperation with the competent authorities in other Member States, hosting service providers and where appropriate relevant Union bodies in order to coordinate actions combating online terrorist content.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. The application of this Regulation shall be subject to Union law regarding fundamental rights, freedoms and values as enshrined in particular in Articles 2 and 6 of the Treaty on the European Union.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1

(1) 'hosting service provider' means a provider of information society services consisting in the storage or processing of information provided by and at the request of the content provider and in making ~~the~~such information ~~stored~~ available to third parties;

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 1

1. Hosting service providers shall take appropriate, reasonable and proportionate actions in accordance with this Regulation, against the dissemination of terrorist content and to protect users from terrorist content. In doing so, they shall act in a diligent, proportionate and non- discriminatory manner, and with due regard to the fundamental rights of the users and take into account the fundamental importance of the freedom of expression and information in an open and democratic society. In particular, such actions shall not include a general monitoring of all information that hosting service providers store, process or transmit.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1

1. The competent authority of a Member State shall have the power to issue a ~~decision~~removal order requiring the hosting service provider to remove terrorist content or disable access to it, and shall immediately inform the competent authorities of any other Member States whose interests it considers may be concerned that a removal order has been issued.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1

1. The competent authority shall have the power to issue a ~~decision~~n order requiring the hosting service provider to remove terrorist content or disable access to it.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 2

2. HWhile mindful of keeping a fair balance between the fundamental rights of all parties, hosting service providers shall remove terrorist content or disable access to it ~~within one hour from~~as promptly as possible after receipt of the removal order.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 4

4. The referral shall contain sufficiently detailed information, including the reasons why the content is considered terrorist content, a URL and, where necessary, additional information enabling the identification of the terrorist content referred, including screenshots if obtainable.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1

1. Hosting service providers shall, where justified and appropriate, take proactive measures to protect their services against the dissemination of terrorist content. The measures shall be effective and proportionate, taking into account the risk and level of exposure to terrorist content, the fundamental rights of the users, and the fundamental importance of the freedom of expression and information in an open and democratic society. Such measures shall be taken in accordance with Article 3(1) and in particular shall not include a system for monitoring or filtering all user content on an indiscriminate and unlimited basis.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1

1. Hosting service providers shall~~, where appropriate,~~ be able, depending on the risk and level of exposure to terrorist content, to take proactive measures to protect their services against the dissemination of terrorist content. The measures shall be effective and proportionate, taking into account the risk and level of exposure to terrorist content, the fundamental rights of the users, and the fundamental importance of the freedom of expression and information in an open and democratic society.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 4

4. Where no agreement can be reached within the three months from the request pursuant to paragraph 3, the competent authority referred to in Article 17(1)(c) may issue a decision imposing specific additional necessary and proportionate proactive measures. The decision shall be based on appropriate, sufficient and relevant evidence and shall take into account, in particular, the economic capacity of the hosting service provider and the effect of such measures on the fundamental rights of the users and the fundamental importance of the freedom of expression and information. Such a decision shall be sent to the main establishment of the hosting service provider or to the legal representative designated by the service provider. The hosting service provider shall regularly report on the implementation of such measures as specified by the competent authority referred to in Article 17(1)(c).

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 4

4. Where no agreement can be reached within the three months from the request pursuant to paragraph 3, the competent authority referred to in Article 17(1)(c) may issue a ~~decision~~n order imposing specific additional necessary and proportionate proactive measures. The decision shall take into account, in particular, the economic capacity of the hosting service provider and the effect of such measures on the fundamental rights of the users and the fundamental importance of the freedom of expression and information. Such a decision shall be sent to the main establishment of the hosting service provider or to the legal representative designated by the service provider. The hosting service provider shall regularly report on the implementation of such measures as specified by the competent authority referred to in Article 17(1)(c).

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 2

2. The terrorist content and related data referred to in paragraph 1 shall be preserved for six months. The terrorist content shall, upon request from the competent authority or court, be preserved for a longer period when and for as long as necessary for ~~ongoing proceedings of administr~~the prevention, detection, investigativeon or ~~judicial review referred to in paragraph 1(a)~~prosecution of terrorist offences.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 1

1. Hosting service providers shall set out in their terms and conditions their policy to prevent the dissemination of, and protection of users from, terrorist content, including, where appropriate, a meaningful explanation of the functioning of proactive measures including the use of automated tools.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 2

2. HUnless there has been no specific action required by them under this Regulation in any given year, hosting service providers shall publish annual transparency reports on action taken against the dissemination of terrorist content.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 – paragraph 1

1. Where hosting service providers use any automated tools ~~pursuant to~~or other proactive measures pursuant to, or otherwise in pursuit of the aims of, this Regulation in respect of content that they store, they shall provide effective and appropriate safeguards to ensure that decisions taken concerning that content, in particular decisions to remove or disable content considered to be terrorist content, are accurate and well-founded, and do not lead to the removal or disabling of access to content that is not terrorist content.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 10 – paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. Content providers shall have the right to appeal to the competent authority in the event that they are unable to resolve their complaint regarding the removal of content or disabling of access directly with the hosting service provider.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 17 – paragraph 1 – introductory part

1. Each Member State shall designate the authority ~~or authorities~~ competent to:

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 18 – paragraph 1 – introductory part

1. Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to breaches of the obligations by hosting service providers or their representatives under this Regulation and shall take all necessary measures to ensure that they are implemented. Such penalties shall ~~be limited to~~cover all such infringements of the obligations pursuant to: this Regulation.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO

Proposal for a regulation
Article 18 – paragraph 3 – point e

(e) the level of cooperation of the hosting service provider or their representatives with the competent authorities.

2019/01/28
Committee: IMCO