EU Justice and Home Affairs Council to meet
The EU Justice and Home Affairs Council will convene a meeting in Luxembourg today.
Justice ministers will discuss how best to counter dissemination of illicit online material and modernize the rules regarding digital services within the EU. The Home Affairs ministers will discuss the effects of COVID-19 on law enforcement activities.
The need to fight illegal content online has risen along with misinformation regarding COVID-19 vaccinations. The risks such disinformation can pose to public health have alarmed EU officials.
Obtaining insight into the full scope of the misinformation issue remains difficult since ad platforms, which are best positioned to collate this information, generally do not offer their data and systems to outside researchers. However, the EU may seek greater access to such information following today’s meeting. The EU’s action plan against disinformation has triggered a number of changes, but it has not met all of its goals thus far. Therefore, in the short-term, EU lawmakers will debate whether internet platforms should be obliged to expose their algorithms to examination, holding them liable for fundamental rights abuses. Stronger opt-in and enforcement procedures are also likely to be implemented.
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