Illegal web contents: EU Commission, “Increasing and speeding up efforts” to remove them. “A joint response from everyone, including the Internet industry”, is needed

“Terrorist propaganda and online contents that invite to violence and hatred are a serious threat to security and fundamental rights, and they need a joint response from all players, including the Internet industry”. This has been written today in the statement signed by the deputy president of the European Commission, Andrus Ansip, and by five European Commissioners, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Věra Jourová, Julian King and Mariya Gabriel, in the run-up to a meeting in Brussels, which they will attend with delegates of online platforms to look at the progress made in curbing the spreading of illegal online contents. The “resources allocated to the timely removal of violent and extremist contents”, which are more and more often posted on online platforms, have managed to remove “dozens of thousands of illegal contents”, but “hundreds of thousands more” need to be removed, and it must be done “quickly”, because “the longer illegal contents are online, the greater their scope, spreading and growth”. The EU Commission calls the online platforms to “increase and speed up their efforts”, not least “by more closely sharing expertise between online players and taking further measures against the reappearance of illegal contents”. The EU Commissioners will work to “promote cooperation with social media companies” and “integrate the existing regulatory framework”.