3619 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "Any State body which has regulatory or other competence over Internet matters carries out its activities free from political or commercial interference, in a transparent manner and protects and promotes Internet freedom."
- "The State provides media and digital literacy programmes for users to foster their ability to make informed decisions and to respect the rights and freedoms of others."
- "The State recognises in law and in practice that disconnecting individuals from the Internet, as a general rule, represents a disproportionate restriction of the right to freedom of expression."
- "Any measure taken by State authorities or private-sector actors to block or otherwise restrict access to an entire Internet platform (social media, social networks, blogs or any other website) or information and communication technologies (ICT) tools (instant messaging or other applications), or any request by State authorities to carry out such actions complies with the conditions of Article 10 of the Convention regarding the legality, legitimacy and proportionality of restrictions."
- "Any measure taken by State authorities or private-sector actors to block, filter or remove Internet content, or any request by State authorities to carry out such actions complies with the conditions of Article 10 of the Convention regarding the legality, legitimacy and proportionality of restrictions."
- "The editorial independence of media operating on the Internet is guaranteed in law, policy and practice. They are not subjected to pressure to include or exclude information from their reporting or to follow a particular editorial direction."
- "Media are not required to obtain permission or a licence from the government or State authorities, beyond business registration, in order to be allowed to operate on the Internet or blog."
- "There are prompt and effective investigations of threats and crimes against journalists and new media actors. There is no climate of impunity."
- "The confidentiality of journalists’ and other media actors’ sources is protected in law and respected in practice."
- "Any restriction of the right to freedom of expression on the Internet is in compliance with the requirements of Article 10 of the Convention, namely it: - is prescribed by a law, which is accessible, clear, unambiguous and sufficiently precise to enable individuals to regulate their conduct. The law ensures tight control over the scope of the restriction and effective judicial review to prevent any abuse of power. The law indicates with sufficient clarity the scope of discretion conferred on public authorities with regard to the implementation of restrictions and the manner of exercise of this discretion; - pursues a legitimate aim as exhaustively enumerated in Article 10 of the Convention; - is necessary in a democratic society and proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued. There is a pressing social need for the restriction, which is implemented on the basis of a decision by a court or an independent administrative body that is subject to judicial review. The decision should be targeted and specific. Also, it should be based on an assessment of the effectiveness of the restriction and risks of over-blocking. This assessment should determine whether the restriction may lead to disproportionate banning of access to Internet content, or to specific types of content, and whether it is the least restrictive means available to achieve the stated legitimate aim."
- "Defamation laws are specific and narrowly defined as to their scope of application. They do not inhibit public debate or criticism of State bodies and do not impose excessive fines or disproportionate awards of damages or legal costs."
- "Laws addressing hate speech or protecting public order, public morals, minors, national security or official secrecy and data protection laws are not applied in a manner which inhibits public debate. Such laws impose restrictions of freedom of expression only in response to a pressing matter of public interest, are defined as narrowly as possible to meet the public interest and include proportionate sanctions."
- "Individuals are free to use Internet platforms, such as social media and other ICTs in order to organise themselves for purposes of peaceful assembly. "
- "Any restriction on the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and right to freedom of association with regard to the Internet is in compliance with Article 11 of the Convention, namely it: - is prescribed by a law, which is accessible, clear, unambiguous and sufficiently precise to enable individuals to regulate their conduct; - pursues a legitimate aim as exhaustively enumerated in Article 11 of the Convention; - is necessary in a democratic society and proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued. There is a pressing social need for the restriction. There is a fair balance between the exercise of the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of association and the interests of the society as a whole. If a less intrusive measure achieves the same goal, it is applied. The restriction is narrowly construed and applied, and does not encroach on the essence of the right to freedom of assembly and association."
- "Personal data are processed lawfully (with the unambiguous consent of the data subject or on the basis of law) for legitimate purposes and not in excess of such purposes, accurately and securely. These conditions apply also to profiling (personal data automatic processing techniques that collect and use information about an individual in order to identify, analyse or predict his or her personal preferences, behaviour and attitudes)."
- "There are effective processes enabling every individual to obtain, on request, information on the processing of his or her personal data and the reason underlying processing; to object to processing; to obtain, on request, rectification or erasure of the personal data; and to consent to, object to or withdraw consent to personal data processing or profiling. "
- "A supervisory authority, which acts with complete independence and impartiality, ensures compliance with data protection legal frameworks."
- "The Human Rights Council, (…) 1. Affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice, in accordance with article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
- "The Human Rights Council, (…) 4. Affirms that quality education plays a decisive role in development, and therefore calls upon all States to promote digital literacy (…)."
- "The Human Rights Council, (…) 7. Encourages all States to take appropriate measures to promote, with the participation of persons with disabilities, the design, development, production and distribution of information and communications technology and systems, including assistive and adaptive technologies, that are accessible to persons with disabilities."
- "The Human Rights Council, (…) 14. Condemns all undue restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression online that violate international law, and notes with concern that such restrictions have a significant impact on women and girls and other individuals who may face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination."
- "The Human Rights Council, (…) 15. Stresses the importance of combating advocacy of hatred on the Internet, which constitutes incitement to discrimination or violence, including by promoting tolerance, education and dialogue."
- "The Human Rights Council, (…) 17. Urges States to adopt, implement and, where necessary, reform laws, regulations, policies and other measures concerning personal data and privacy protection online in order to prevent, mitigate and remedy the arbitrary or unlawful collection, retention, processing, use or disclosure of personal data on the Internet that could violate human rights."
- "In line with the Convention 108 and according to Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)4 on the protection of human rights with regard to social networking services and Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)5 on Internet freedom, social network services should not process personal data beyond the specified purposes for which they have collected it. Electoral campaigning constitutes in most cases a distinct purpose for which distinct consent is required."
- "Political campaigning undertaken by political parties, candidates and other individuals online entails responsibilities not only for governments but also for platforms and intermediaries, which should develop codes of conduct that make explicit their respect for such fundamental rights and put in place strategies for their effective enforcement in line with the respective national rules on political campaigning."
- "Governments, electoral management bodies and relevant oversight agencies must act swiftly to bring legal definitions of political advertising up to date, thereby grounding in law essential responsibilities on content, financing and placement of online political ads that correspond to online platforms, political activists, sponsors and other intermediaries."
- "Online platforms must conduct identity verification protocols to ensure that only legally authorised advertisers place ads and should be responsible for removing inauthentic online communications. Regulations should ban inauthentic production and dissemination of online political advertisement, such as machine-generated ads and targeting."
- "Regulations must subject online platforms – and not only authorised advertisers – to the highest standards of transparency so that voters can distinguish paid and user-generated content. Platforms must publicly disclose information at both ad and aggregated levels in regard to who places ads, who pays for them, the ad generation methods, the targeting criteria, the profiling data sources, reach, duration, and average rates charged. Infringements by platforms must be penalised."
- "Users’ consent to the collection and commercialisation of their personal information must latch on a genuine understanding of the economic and political value of their choice."
- "Hosting service providers should be encouraged to publish clear, easily understandable and sufficiently detailed explanations of their policy in respect of the removal or disabling of access to the content that they store, including content considered to be illegal content."
- "The Commission calls upon platforms to decisively step up their efforts to tackle online disinformation. It considers that self-regulation can contribute to these efforts, provided it is effectively implemented and monitored."
- "Ensure that online services include, by design, safeguards against disinformation; this should, for example, include detailed information on the behaviour of algorithms that prioritise the display of content as well as development of testing methodologies."
- "The Commission encourages Member States to mobilise resources and include in their educational policies digital citizenship, media literacy, the development of critical-thinking skills for the online environment, and awareness-raising activities on disinformation and online amplification techniques."
- "Online platforms should, in light of their central role and capabilities and their associated responsibilities, adopt effective proactive measures to detect and remove illegal content online and not only limit themselves to reacting to notices which they receive."
- "Online platforms should disclose their detailed content policies in their terms of service and clearly communicate this to their users. These terms should not only define the policy for removing or disabling access to content, but also spell out the safeguards that ensure that content-related measures do not lead to over-removal. In particular, online platforms' terms of service should clearly spell out any possibility for the users to contest removal decisions as part of an enhanced transparency of the platforms' general removal policies."
- "Signatories commit to keep complying with the requirement set by EU and national laws, and outlined in self-regulatory Codes, that all advertisements should be clearly distinguishable from editorial content, including news, whatever their form and whatever the medium used. When an advertisement appears in a medium containing news or editorial matter, it should be presented in such a way as to be readily recognisable as a paid-for communication or labelled as such."
- "In line with the Commission's Communication, the signatories of the Code of Practice recognise the importance of efforts to: (i) Include safeguards against disinformation; (ii) Improve the scrutiny of advertisement placements to reduce revenues of the purveyors of disinformation; (iii) Ensure transparency about political and issue-based advertising, also with a view to enabling users to understand why they have been targeted by a given advertisement; (iv) Implement and promote reasonable policies against misrepresentation; (v) Intensify and demonstrate the effectiveness of efforts to close fake accounts and establish clear marking systems and rules for bots to ensure their activities cannot be confused with human interactions; (...) (vii) Consistently with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the principle of freedom of opinion, invest in technological means to prioritize relevant, authentic, and accurate and authoritative information where appropriate in search, feeds, or other automatically ranked distribution channels (...) (ix) Dilute the visibility of disinformation by improving the findability of trustworthy content."
- "In line with those rights and freedoms, rather than criminalising or prohibiting disinformation as such, the EU strategy aims to make the online environment and its actors more transparent and accountable, making content moderation practices more transparent, empowering citizens and fostering an open democratic debate."
- "These [paid] ads should be clearly and effectively labelled and distinguishable as paid-for content, and users should be able to understand that the content displayed contains advertising related to political or societal issues."
- "Empowering users is key to limiting the impact of disinformation. A better understanding of the functioning of online services, as well as tools that foster more responsible behaviour online or that enable users to detect and report false and/or misleading content, can dramatically limit the spread of disinformation."
- "Disinformation is an area where rigid legislation by the EU or member states is not desirable, mainly because doing so would constitute a disproportionate interference with freedom of speech. In the absence of such legislation, the soft law instrument in play is the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation – a voluntary arrangement between the European Commission and big tech companies (...). "
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: 8.1. promote a free, independent and pluralist media environment as an essential precondition for combating disinformation and undue propaganda."
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: (...) 8.2. avoid media concentration, also paying attention to the problem of cross ownership."
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: (...) 8.3. oblige, where this is not already the case, public and private broadcast media to cover election campaigns fairly and impartially, making sure that opposition parties benefit from balanced media coverage in current affairs and information programmes, and introduce, along with this obligation, appropriate penalties by setting up the necessary monitoring and rectification mechanisms to ensure implementation in practice."
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: (...) 8.6. clearly distinguish between the campaign activities and information activities of public and private media to ensure equity among political competitors, as well as a conscious and free choice for voters."
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: (...) 8.7. adopt strict rules on media coverage of government activities to avoid media coverage of ceremonies attended or organised by the government resulting in preferential treatment and undue advantages for the parties in power and their candidates during elections."
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: (...) 8.8. guarantee, where political parties and candidates have the right to purchase advertising space for election purposes, equal treatment in terms of conditions and rates charged; in this context, there should be a requirement for paid political advertising to be readily recognisable as such."
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: (...) 8.9. ensure total transparency with regard to the public when media are owned by political parties or politicians."
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: (...) 8.10. guarantee the editorial independence of public service media, putting an end to any attempts to influence them or transform them into governmental media: the use of public service media to promote a specific political party or candidate must be classified as illegal misuse of public funds."
- "Accordingly, the Assembly calls on member States to review, where necessary, their regulatory frameworks governing media coverage of election campaigns, in order to bring them into line with Council of Europe standards, ensuring in particular that they: (...) 8.11. enhance the operational capacities of media regulators which must be independent of the political and economic powers; in this regard: 8.11.1. ensure that the composition of these bodies is politically neutral and based on media expertise and competence."