A small group of reporters and a clear message: the European Parliament should return to European Commission proposal rather than moving away from it. This was the message defended by the vice-president with responsibility for the single digital market, Andrus Ansip, when addressing reporters on 13 July.
"I don’t want a ministry of truth", said the vice-president, pointing out that he knew Estonia under the Soviet Union. He said that the position of the legal affairs committee goes too far because it no longer mentions the difference between large and small platforms and no longer takes account of the principle of the limited responsibility of the e-commerce directive. To develop his view, he said that even YouTube’s ContentID programme, one of the most high-performing, is only able to identify 95% of content loaded by users. He said that if platforms became totally responsible for content loaded onto their portal, they would, in doubt, risk automatically withdrawing content. He said that he also feared for the freedom of expression in this connection, urging MEP to adopt a more flexible position at their vote in Strasbourg on 12 September. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)