EU Urged to Keep Social Media Protections After Trump Lashes Out

(Bloomberg) -- A group that promotes free speech online is urging the European Union to keep legal protections for web platforms as the bloc prepares to overhaul 20-year-old rules that govern how the internet functions.

The group, made up of a dozen non-governmental organizations, sent the letter to EU ministers and tech commissioners on Thursday, a week after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the American equivalent of the laws, which insulate social media and other platforms from liability for the content posted by their users.

“The fundamental principle of limited liability for user-generated content must be preserved,” the group said in its letter, adding that the protection has helped thousands of online services in Europe grow as a result. It was signed by organizations including AccessNow and the Center for Democracy and Technology.

The CDT filed a lawsuit against Trump this week, claiming his executive order violates U.S. free-speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The EU is looking to modernize similar rules as part of its so-called Digital Services Act, under which it could hand platforms more responsibility for users’ posts, including violent hate speech. The EU launched a consultation this week, inviting feedback from the public until September.

While the group said it broadly supported plans to update the legal framework, it also urged legislators to uphold rules prohibiting obligations for platforms to monitor their sites for problematic posts.

“General monitoring would undermine free expression and privacy by imposing ongoing and indiscriminate control of all online content with mandatory use of technical filtering tools,” it said.

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