The European Parliament has voted to pass a controversial reform of online copyright rules that critics contend will result in big tech platforms pre-filtering user generated content uploads. The results of the final vote in the EU parliament were 348 in favor vs 274 against. An amendment that would have thrown out the most controversial […]
View More European parliament votes for controversial copyright reform (yes, again)Category: european parliament
EU gov’t and public health sites lousy with adtech, study finds
A study of tracking cookies running on government and public sector health websites in the European Union has found commercial adtech to be operating pervasively even in what should be core not-for-profit corners of the Internet. The researchers used searches including queries related to HIV, mental health, pregnancy, alcoholism and cancer to examine how frequently […]
View More EU gov’t and public health sites lousy with adtech, study findsEurope agrees platform rules to tackle unfair business practices
The European Union’s political institutions have reached agreement over new rules designed to boost transparency around online platform businesses and curb unfair practices to support traders and other businesses that rely on digital intermediaries for discovery and sales. The European Commission proposed a regulation for fairness and transparency in online platform trading last April. And late yesterday […]
View More Europe agrees platform rules to tackle unfair business practicesFacebook urged to offer an API for political ad transparency research
Facebook has been called upon to provide good faith researchers with an API to enable them to study how political ads are spreading and being amplified on its platform. A coalition of European academics, technologists and human and digital rights groups, led by Mozilla, has signed an open letter to the company demanding far greater […]
View More Facebook urged to offer an API for political ad transparency researchFacebook, Google and Twitter told to do more to fight fake news ahead of European elections
A first batch of monthly progress reports from tech giants and advertising companies on what they’re doing to help fight online disinformation have been published by the European Commission. Platforms including Facebook, Google and Twitter signed up to a voluntary EU code of practice on the issue last year. The first reports cover measures taken […]
View More Facebook, Google and Twitter told to do more to fight fake news ahead of European electionsFacebook is launching political ad checks in Nigeria, Ukraine, EU and India in coming months
Facebook is launching some of its self-styled ‘election security’ initiatives into more markets in the coming months ahead of several major votes in countries around the world. In an interview with Reuters the social networking giant confirmed it’s launching checks on political adverts on its platform in Nigeria, Ukraine and the European Union, reiterating too that […]
View More Facebook is launching political ad checks in Nigeria, Ukraine, EU and India in coming monthsGoogle lays outs narrow “EU election advertiser” policy ahead of 2019 vote
Google has announced its plan for combating election interference in the European Union, ahead of elections next May when up to 350 million voters across the region will vote to elect 705 Members of the European Parliament. In a blog post laying out a narrow approach to democracy-denting disinformation, Google says it will introduce a […]
View More Google lays outs narrow “EU election advertiser” policy ahead of 2019 voteFacebook under pressure over Soros smear tactics
Facebook is facing calls to conduct an external investigation into its own lobbying and PR activities by an aide to billionaire George Soros. BuzzFeed reports that Michael Vachon, an advisor to the chairman at Soros Fund Management, made the call in a letter to friends and colleagues. The call follows an explosive investigation, published yesterday […]
View More Facebook under pressure over Soros smear tacticsBig tech must not reframe digital ethics in its image
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s visage loomed large over the European parliament this week, both literally and figuratively, as global privacy regulators gathered in Brussels to interrogate the human impacts of technologies that derive their power and persuasiveness from our data. The eponymous social network has been at the center of a privacy storm this year. And […]
View More Big tech must not reframe digital ethics in its imageEurope’s parliament calls for full audit of Facebook in wake of breach scandal
The European Parliament has called for a full audit of Facebook following a string of data breach scandals — including the Cambridge Analytica affair. MEPs are urging the company to allow European Union bodies to carry out a full audit to assess data protection and security of users’ personal data, following the scandal in which […]
View More Europe’s parliament calls for full audit of Facebook in wake of breach scandalTech and ad giants sign up to Europe’s first weak bite at ‘fake news’
The European Union’s executive body has signed up tech platforms and ad industry players to a voluntary Code of Practice aimed at trying to do something about the spread of disinformation online. Something, just not anything too specifically quantifiable. According to the Commission, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Mozilla, some additional members of the EDIMA trade association, […]
View More Tech and ad giants sign up to Europe’s first weak bite at ‘fake news’European parliament gives thumbs up to controversial copyright reforms
The European Parliament has just voted to back controversial proposals to reform online copyright — including supporting an extension to cover snippets of publishers content (Article 11), and to make platforms that hold significant amounts of content liable for copyright violations by their users (Article 13). Plenary adopts it’s negotiating position on copyright rules for […]
View More European parliament gives thumbs up to controversial copyright reforms