Cross-border Internet and law – what frameworks? – WS 04 2015

---

Please use your own words to describe this session. You may use external references, websites or publications as a source of information or inspiration, if you decide to quote them, please clearly specify the source.

---

Title

Cross-border Internet and law - what frameworks?

Session teaser

The workshop will discuss the tension between the cross-border nature of the Internet and national laws in Europe and beyond. The speakers will explore together with the audience the rising number of direct requests from one country to Internet companies in other jurisdictions and the evolution of intermediary liability regimes and Terms of Service in this context.

Session description

A plethora of recent cases in Europe show the tension between the cross-border nature of the Internet and geographically defined national laws.

The Microsoft case before a New York court raises questions regarding the extraterritorial extension of sovereignty and norms for access to user data on servers physically located in the Irish jurisdiction. The Delfi v Estonia case in front of the European Court of Human Rights touches upon the responsibility of intermediaries to remove content from their platforms. The “right to be de-indexed” decision by the Court of Justice of the EU raises questions regarding role of companies in making determinations on requests they receive. At the same time, recent acts of terrorism in Europe triggered a debate around the responsibility of platforms to monitor and remove related content. Moreover, the horizontal nature of the EU intermediary liability regime triggers increasingly discussions around the separation of copyright and Freedom of Expression issues. Last, but not least, what is the role of Terms of Services of intermediaries in that regard, what the right balance between legitimate cybersecurity concerns and fundamental online freedoms?

What unites all these hot topics is the increasing number of cross-border requests Internet companies and operators receive from public authorities, courts and individuals. What does this mean for the application of the rule of law online and what frameworks can be developed to address these new challenges and enable the coexistence of diverse national laws on the transnational Internet and guarantee due process, transparency and accountability?

Keywords

Jurisdiction, Intermediary Liability, Law, Requests, Hate Speech, Terrorism, Security, Right to be De-Indexed, Defamation

Format

Dynamic Roundtable Discussion: In the beginning, each key participant makes a 3-4 minutes intervention to raise a specific topic, which will be immediately discussed in a short, succinct form with the audience. This format is intended to allow a dynamic debate and cover the different facets of the topic.

Further reading

- Internet & Jurisdiction Project - Progress Report http://www.internetjurisdiction.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Internet-Jurisdiction-Project-Progress-Report-2013-14.pdf

- Manila Principles on Intermediary Liability https://www.manilaprinciples.org/

People

• Focal Point:

Paul Fehlinger, Internet & Jurisdiction Project

• Org team: (deadline 10. April 2015)

Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Ana Neves, UMIC-Knowledge Society Agency in Portugal

Yuliya Morentes, Together against Cybercrime

Kostas Rossoglou, Yelp

• Key participants|Panelists: (deadline 15. Mai 2015)

Gabrielle Guillemin, Legal Officer, Article 19 Jan Kleijssen (tbc), Director of Information Society and Action against Crime, DG 1, Council of Europe Kostas Rossoglou, Head of EU Public Policy, Yelp Megan Richards, Director for Coordination, DG Connect, European Commission Robert Shlegel (tbc), Member of the Duma, Russian Federation

• Moderator: (deadline 15. Mai 2015)

Paul Fehlinger, Internet & Jurisdiction Project

• Reporter: (deadline 15. Mai 2015)

tbd

• Remote moderator: (deadline 15. Mai 2015)

tbd

Current discussion

See the discussion tab on the upper left side of this page

Mailing list

Contact: ws4@eurodig.org

Session twitter hashtag

Hashtag: #eurodigws4