On Tuesday 2 May, the EPP invited Jackie Fox, Irish activist and mother of Nicole “Coco” Fox, who died by suicide after years of harassment on social media. Despite little initial support from the government, she managed to change the law of the land thanks to the support of citizens on social networks. “It was a battle”, Ms Fox conceded. For example, since 2021, the ‘Coco Law’ criminalises the non-consensual sharing of intimate images online and punishes it with fines and even prison sentences. “There are people in prison right now under ‘Coco’s Law’ and then there’s 105 ready for prosecution”, she added.
Today, this mother wants similar legislation in all EU countries. A quest supported in particular by Frances Fitzgerald (EPP, Irish), co-rapporteur on the directive combating violence against women (see EUROPE 13131/18). One after the other, they gave an interview to EUROPE. (Interview by Hélène Seynaeve)
EUROPE - Ms Fitzgerald, you’re advocating for cyberbullying and intimate image abuse online to be made illegal across every EU country. How do you see the situation today?
Frances Fitzgerald - It’s very fragmented and we’ve had a legal vacuum in many countries in relation to cyber violence. It’s time to end it [...], we need EU-wide legislation. And we think that [in the EPP, editor’s note] what Jackie has described happen to Nicole makes the case, more strongly than almost anybody else could [...]
[Online bullying] is very common and it’s incredibly serious. [...] So we’re looking for a debate in the Parliament as soon as possible in Strasbourg, and with the EPP group we want to put our political weight behind it to make sure that we get a law at European level in relation to this.
You’re co-rapporteur on the proposed directive to combat violence against women, which introduces provisions on cyber-violence.
Certainly the Commission is interested in ensuring that we have a directive on cyber-violence but Coco’s law goes further. It also talks about directors and owners of enterprises who might be involved, or businesses. It says that they also have a responsibility to deal with this.
So you would like for the directive to go further?
Yes, we’ll be working on that in the working group [in the European Parliament, editor’s note]. We’ll be finalising that (draft report) in the next few weeks.
You received over a thousand amendments [from the European Parliament’s Committees on Civil Liberties (LIBE) and Gender Equality (FEMM), editor’s note].
Everybody wants everything in the directive on violence against women. We have to look at the legal basis and at how do we go into negotiations with a strong position.
By the way, we have a very serious problem at the moment: about 16 Member States are against including rape because they want the competence to stay at the Member State level. I’m very concerned about a directive on violence against women that doesn’t include rape, and I think the public would be very disappointed. This is a slightly different issue to what we’re discussing, but you begin to see the problems about competence.
But in cyber-violence, we don’t have that competence issue, we can do something on it. [”computer crimes” being a crime listed in Article 83(1) TFEU, editor’s note].
Do you think there could be some resistance from the Member States also on cyber-violence?
I don’t think so, my sense is that this is something that people could unite around and bring a strong law. Everybody realises how very serious it is, even for young children. Of course, you’ll get the arguments about privacy and there will be ‘boundary areas’ to be worked out, but overall I think we will get some central principles agreed relatively easy.
Is having computer crimes as an EU crime enough or should we also try and include either gender-based violence or cyber bullying as well?
Let’s be realistic about Euro-crimes: that’s unanimity, and it’s very hard to get unanimity, especially if people think it interferes in any way with their national competences. So I wouldn’t hold my breath trying to get either rape or even the others included as Euro-crimes. But it’s still possible to get a law through without something being a Euro-crime.
Ms Fox, what were the blocking points in the beginning for getting the government’s support?
Jackie Fox - I think two things. One, it was such a wide law to try and bring in, they had to cover everything and I don’t think they were willing to do that just yet.
And the other thing is, when suicide or online bullying doesn’t affect you, you’re not going to push for it, because you don’t feel it’s something that you could have an impact on. Before Nicole died and I would hear stories of bullying and suicide, I’d say ‘oh, that’s terrible, that’s awful’, but then I just got on with my life. It’s only since Nicole died that I understood how many people were suffering and needed it [help].
What would you like to see the EU do about cyberbullying?
What I’d like to see happening is for Coco’s law to become Europe-wide, there’s no point in just having it in Ireland [...] Suicide because of social media is real, whether it’s the sharing of the images or the bullying side of it. So many people have lost their lives in Ireland, because there wasn’t a legislation, Nicole being one of them. [...] Making Coco’s law Europe-wide could save many people, and it would deter a lot of bullies as well.