15 December 2022
To Speak, or not to Speak
Several national football federations and their teams had planned to wear a rainbow armband (also called the “One-Love” armband) when entering the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which symbolizes solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. Promptly, this simple gesture in favor of respect of human rights and diversity was forbidden by FIFA. The days following the ban, players and teams expressed their unease about FIFA’s strict position and about the uncertainty of the potential sanctions. FIFA’s practice towards freedom of expression lacks consistency, which further highlights the protection gap that exists between the lex sportiva, the rules and regulations governing sports, and human rights law in respect of freedom of expression. How could the differences be reconciled? Continue reading >>
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15 December 2022
Articulating Legitimacy through Policy Recommendations
On 6 December, Meta's Oversight Board issued a policy advisory opinion on 'cross-check', a content moderation system used by the company to avoid the erroneous removal of content shared by highly influential users on its platforms. Despite the opinion’s directness in calling Meta out for the disproportionate attention paid to corporate interests to the detriment of its human rights commitments, the OB’s decision presents an underlying duplicity, as it criticises policy and design choices replicated in the OB’s own architecture. This curtails the institution's capacity to enhance accountability and legitimacy. Continue reading >>
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19 October 2022
Sex, God, and Blasphemy
Blasphemy used to be a grave offence once. Now, it is on the decline, making room for freedom of expression. Yet, two judgments of last week show that blasphemy has managed to re-enter the stage through the back door. In this blogpost, I argue that although both cases ended well, i.e. were decided in favour of freedom of expression of artists and activists, both courts erred in their assessment of the role of religion and religious sentiment in European secular democracies. Continue reading >>
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05 August 2022
The Re-Emergence of the Net Neutrality Debate in Europe
The European online space has been subjected to intensive legal reforms in recent years, and the policy and regulatory debates regarding the role and obligations of tech companies in Europe are far from over. With the rumoured Connectivity Infrastructure Act, the European Commission seeks to compel Big Tech actors to financially contribute to telecommunications infrastructure. This initiative risks opening the pandora's box of net neutrality, and potentially endangers the democratic principles of freedom of expression and pluralism. Continue reading >>
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28 July 2022
Accessing Information about Abortion
The U.S. Supreme Court decision of 24 June 2022 overruled a half century of precedent supporting a constitutional right to abortion across the U.S. established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade. Essentially, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization left the decision on abortion to individual states. The ruling, although astonishing, was not necessarily a surprise, after its draft had leaked a few weeks earlier. But to the surprise of many, almost immediately, Facebook and Instagram started removing posts informing about access to abortion pills, the Associated Press and Vice first reported. Continue reading >>
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16 May 2022
Between Filters and Fundamental Rights
On 26 April 2022 the CJEU delivered its much-awaited judgement in Case C-401/19 – Poland v. Parliament and Council. The case concerns the validity of Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive in light of fundamental rights. The judgment marks the climax of a turbulent journey in the area of copyright law, with potential implications for the future of platform regulation and content moderation in EU law. Continue reading >>
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16 March 2022
The Hijab Ban in India has nothing to do with Secularism
In February 2022, educational institutions in the town of Udupi (in Karnataka, India) decided to ban the wearing of Hijabs by Muslim students in a college. This ban is unconstitutional. It is not in line with the principle of secularism and also violates the right to education. Continue reading >>10 March 2022
Anti-terrorism regulation and the media in Uganda
Freedom of the media just like freedom of expression are provided for in the 1995 Constitution of Uganda, but spaces for exercising these rights are growing narrower by the day. The use of anti-terrorism regulation to suppress dissenting views reflects growing intolerance of criticism of President Yoweri Museveni’s regime. Foremost, legal and physical harassment from the authorities threaten privately funded media institutions and deter journalists from covering and interrogating certain issues. Continue reading >>08 March 2022
The EU’s “Ban” of RT and Sputnik
Denouncing Russian authorities‘ “muzzling“ of independent media and reiterating its support for media freedom and pluralism, the European Union banned two Russian media outlets in March 2022. This apparent contradiction between a statement of principle and concrete action can be resolved. While the ban can be legally justified as a measure designed to suppress “propaganda for war”, European institutions should not try to justify it by pointing to these outlets’ track record of “disinformation” or simply “propaganda”. To address legitimate questions of double standards that will come up in the wake of the inevitable whataboutism, it should be stressed that the Union’s measures differ decisively from any authoritarian censorship by virtue of the Union’s character as a community of law. Continue reading >>24 February 2022
The DSA’s Industrial Model for Content Moderation
I expect that in many real-world cases, the process prescribed by the DSA will waste resources that could better be spent elsewhere, and burden smaller platforms to a degree that effectively sacrifices competition and pluralism goals in the name of content regulation. There is a difference between procedural rules that legitimately protect fundamental rights and the exhaustive processes that might exist in a hyper-rationalized, industrial model of content moderation. The line between the two is not always clear. But I think the DSA often crosses it. Continue reading >>
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