On May 11, 2022, the Fifth Circuit reinstated Texas state law HB 20 which allows private parties to sue tech platforms with 50M+ MAUs for their censorship of user-generated content based on “the viewpoint of a user or another person”. On May 13, technology lobbying groups NetChoice and the Computer...
On April 13, 2022, a group of 31 international human rights and civil liberties organizations urged Twitter, Meta, Google, Telegram and Tik Tok to address a double-standard for content moderation policies regarding the conflict in Ukraine. In an open letter, the group called for the social media...
A French mayor, Julien Sanchez, is seeking review of the Sanchez v. France decision in the European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber which extended online intermediary liability rules to social media users. Last year, its lower chamber found that there was no violation of freedom of expression...
On March 30, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, David Lametti, announced a new expert advisory group on online safety as the next step in developing legislation to address harmful online content. The expert advisory group...
On March 24, 2022, EU lawmakers reached a compromise on drafts of the Digital Markets Act. The EU Regulation awaits final adoption by the EU Parliament and Council. It will then take full effect in late 2023 or early 2024. The act aims to ban certain practices by large platforms as well as...
By June, Indonesia's finance and communications ministries are expected to finalize new rules permitting the government to fine and criminally charge social media companies. These rules follow the November 2020 Ministerial Regulation 5, issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and...
Australia's federal government has been pushing for new ‘anti-trolling legislation’ that would see defamation liability shift from owners of social media pages onto social media platforms as it believes the legislative changes would go a long way towards reducing online harm, but the Labor party...
On March 22, 2022, Russian lawmakers amended the “fake news” laws with fines and prison sentences. The law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 4, criminalized specific types of news coverage over the invasion of Ukraine and could force more social networks out of the country. From P...
On March 17, 2022, lawmakers introduced the Online Safety BIll to Parliament. The proposed regulation would grant Ofcom the power to fine non-compliant companies, force them to improve their practices, and block non-compliant sites. Since its first draft in May 2021, the Bill now includes changes to...
On February 3, 2022, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) published the first draft of the ‘Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Regulation for Digital, Social Media and OTT Platforms, 2021’. The regulation would introduce traceability within social media...
The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2021 currently before the Kenyan parliament seeks to repeal the Copyright Act’s sections 35B, 35C and 35D which have been in place since 2019. Respectively, the provisions cover notice and takedown procedures that can impose criminal liability and fines on ISPs...