The Online Safety Bill [pdf] (OSB) is a gorilla of a thing, comprising 213 pages, plus explanatory notes, impact assessment and human rights statement. It will take a while for people to understand how the regime introduced by the OSB is likely to work. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Lorna Woods (Page 1 of 2)
Non-consensual pornography, commonly referred to as image-based sexual abuse, is easily and freely available on pornography websites. Yet, to date, responses to this problem have been partial and fragmented. There is the possibility that this situation will change. Proposals to impose obligations on pornography sites to reduce the extent of this unlawful material have been inserted into the European Parliament’s negotiating position on the Digital Services Act (DSA) as Article 24b. Continue reading
On 23 March 2020, UK communications regulator Ofcom issued guidance on content standards during the pandemic. Building on the generally applicable Broadcast Content Code, the Ofcom guidance highlighted the importance of sections 2 and 5. Section 2 deals with harm and offence; section 5 with impartiality and accuracy. Continue reading
The Court of Justice today handed down the much anticipated ruling on the legality of standard contractual clauses (SCCs) as a mechanism to transfer personal data outside the European Union. It forms part of Schrems’ campaign to challenge the ‘surveillance capitalism’ model on which many online businesses operate: there are other challenges to the behavioural advertising model ongoing. Continue reading
Should social media platforms be subject to a statutory duty of care, akin to occupiers’ liability or health and safety, with the aim of protecting against online harms? In a series of blogposts and evidence to the House of Lords Communications Committee William Perrin and Professor Lorna Woods suggest that the answer should be yes. Continue reading
With the election now in the past, the wheels of government are beginning to grind again. While most eyes are on Brussels, it is important that the bright lights of Brexit do not draw attention away from other work that is resuming and ongoing. Among it, the Law Commission will continue its project that considers the revision of the laws on Official Secrets, with its final proposals expected later this year. Continue reading
The ubiquity of social media platforms and their significance in disseminating information (true or false) to potentially wide groups of people was highly unlikely to have been in the minds of the European legislators when they agreed, in 2000, the e-Commerce Directive (Directive 2000/31/EC) (ECD). Continue reading
The 21 December 2016 judgment in these important cases concerns the acceptability from a human rights perspective of national data retention legislation maintained even after the striking down of the Data Retention Directive in Digital Rights Ireland (Case C-293/12 and 594/12) (“DRI”) for being a disproportionate interference with the rights contained in Articles 7 and 8 EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (EUCFR). Continue reading
The recent CJEU judgment in VKI v Amazon (C-191/15) concerns jurisdiction both in the context of conflict of laws (applicable consumer laws) and the Data Protection Directive. Essentially, the Court of Justice had to decide which Member State’s data protection law should apply where goods are sold across national borders but within the EU. In this, it forms part of a stream of case law (both decided and pending), dealing with the powers of states (and their institutions) to protect those within their boundaries notwithstanding the digital internal market. Continue reading
The Advocate-General’s opinion of 19 July 2016 concerns two references from national courts which both arose in the aftermath of the invalidation of the Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24) in Digital Rights Ireland dealing with whether the retention of communications data en masse complies with EU law. Continue reading
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