EU Censorship News

A Paris court has offered to organize a mediation to find a way to prevent minors from accessing pornography on the internet.

Campaigners had asked telecom operators to immediately block several porn websites but French law does not actually specify how this should be achieved.

The decision to order the parties to negotiate will be formally taken soon as the French internet censor ARCOM does not seem willing or able to specify how age verification should be done.

The Cypriot company MG Freesit es, publisher of the Pornhub platform, one of the five sites targeted in this procedure, for its part filed a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) which calls into question the legitimacy of Arcom to act.

The court will decide on October 4 whether or not to send this QPC to the Court of Cassation. If this was not the case, a new civil hearing would be organized to examine the case on the merits.

During the debates, the lawyers representing Pornhub, Tukif, XHamster, Xvideos, Xnxx, targeted in December 2021 by a formal notice from Arcom and which are among the most visited sites in France, tried to prove their goodwill. " None of the technical solutions that we have tested have proven to be satisfactory.

Recent reports from the Cnil and Peren, the government's center of expertise in data protectin, have recalled the risks associated with existing majority verification solutions offered by the industry, while by paving the way for a system based on trusted third parties.

The Hungarian media censor has said it was investigating Netflix for potentially violating an anti-LGBT law, citing several complaints over a cartoon showing girls kissing.

The National Media and Communications Authority said it was checking whether an episode of a Netflix kids series named Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous had violated a law which prohibits the portrayal of homosexuality or transgender people in content shown to minors.

The Netflix series, rated for 7-year-olds and above, shows one of the main characters confessing her love to another girl and kissing her.

The censor said that if it found Netflix to have violated its law, it would have to inform the Dutch media authority, which oversees Netflix because the firm's European headquarters are in the Netherlands. The Dutch censor would in turn have the final say.

The European Parliament has ratified the latest laws that to extend internet censorship in the EU.

MEPs approved the final versions of the Digital Markets Act, focused on ending monopolistic practices of tech giants, and the Digital Services Act (DSA), which toughens scrutiny and the consequences for platforms when they host banned content.

The DSA will target a wide range of internet actors and aims to ensure real consequences for companies that fail to censor supposed hate speech, information the authorities don't like and and child sexual abuse images.

Danish MEP Christel Schaldemose commented:

The digital world has developed a bit like a western movie, there were no real rules of the game, but now there is a new sheriff in town.

The DSA passed easily with 539 votes in favor, 54 against and 30 abstentions.

Both laws now require the final approval by the EU's 27 member states, which should be a formality.

Now the big question is over enforcement with worries that the European Commission lacks the means to give sharp teeth to its new powers.