This week a coalition of six organisations (La Quadrature du Net (LQDN), Access Now, ARTICLE 19, European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL), European Digital Rights (EDRi), and Wikimedia France) filed a complaint before the French supreme administrative court, the Conseil d'etat, against the French decree implementing the Regulation known as 'TERREG'. This regulation addresses the dissemination of terrorist content online. 

The litigant organisations, among many others, have harshly criticised the TERREG because of its potential to allow fundamental rights violations. While fighting terrorism is an important objective, TERREG threatens freedom of expression and access to information on the internet by giving law enforcement the power to decide what can be said online without prior independent judicial review. According to the litigant organisations, this legislation also reinforces the hegemony of the largest online platforms, as only very few platforms can meet the obligations under TERREG.

Why does it matter?

There is widespread concern that these automated systems cannot account for the context of publications and are prone to errors that result in the censorship of protected speech, such as journalism, satire, art, or documentation of human rights abuses. Furthermore, the obligation to adopt 'specific measures' may violate the prohibition of imposing a general monitoring obligation under the Digital Services Act.