25/03/2021 (Agence Europe) – On 25 March, a group of NGOs called for the European Parliament to reject the agreement reached in December with the EU Council on the removal of terrorist content within an hour, which was recently validated by the Committee on Civil Liberties (see EUROPE 12634/14). With the European Parliament due to approve the agreement at the end of April, 61 NGOs, including Liberties, EDRi, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have raised concerns about the risks to fundamental rights posed by the legislation. They alerted MEPs to potential infringements of freedom of expression, freedom of information, the right to privacy and the Rule of law. Critics of the text, notably among the Greens/EFA, are concerned about the possible use of automated algorithms to preventively detect terrorist content, since they see this as control of the Internet, as well as cross-border jurisdiction of take-down orders. Link to the NGO letter: https://bit.ly/2NU30B6 (SP)