Just to add that obviously as the UK chapter we have also been tracking the
progress of the Online Safety Bill and have responded to the various past
consultations as well as liaised with the WMF and allies such as Creative
Commons and Open Rights Group on key angles. Currently planning some joint
advocacy (with UK partners) around the dilution of the media literacy
aspects of the Bill. Happy to pick up on this again next week (it's late on
Friday night here!)
Best
Lucy
On Fri, 1 Jul 2022 at 12:35, <publicpolicy-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: EU Policy Monitoring Report: June 2022 (Rita Jonusaite)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2022 13:34:34 +0200
From: Rita Jonusaite <rj(a)disinfo.eu>
Subject: [Publicpolicy] Re: EU Policy Monitoring Report: June 2022
To: Publicpolicy Group for Wikimedia
<publicpolicy(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: Kyle Taylor <kyle(a)fairvote.uk>uk>, Matthew Gallagher
<matt(a)fairvote.uk>
Message-ID:
<CA+A7O8g-gvGgt9=dLUBLSb7CJ_tCVtGi+v5YRkb4=
XLk+NDVmA(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="000000000000efbf3105e2bcc5e6"
Hey all,
If you have not seen re OSB in the UK, the Fair Vote UK is circulatring a
Global letter to the UK Government on the loopholes in the UK's Online
Safety Bill that they would like other organisations to sign. The joint
letter is nearing 50 signatures already including Accountable Tech,
Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Global Witness and Global Project Against
Hate and Extremism etc. I am sharing with you their original message below
and adding Matt and Kyle who are leading the campaign in Cc if you have any
questions directly.
*Deadline is COB Friday (but they can go as late as Monday
to my understanding)!*
Best,
Rita
*--ORIGINAL ASK--*
I'm Matt of Fair Vote UK, and I'm leading within our organisation on an
international coalition campaign to voice global opposition to the
loopholes currently written into the UK's Online Safety Bill.
*I'm writing to ask for your organisation's signature on a global letter
<
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tyCCU9ms7AlMdieIl4zEGlBHf7n8snCttyQf4pB…
*
*to the UK Government,* highlighting the
danger posed by this bill's
exemptions, exceptions and exclusions – which fundamentally undermine its
purpose of making the internet safer. The risks are international in scope
as these loopholes could effectively allow for harmful content and
disinformation to be "laundered" in the UK. Please sign if possible!
*Overview of the Letter: *
The UK’s Online Safety Bill, currently making its way through Parliament,
aims to make the UK “the safest place in the world to go online”.
Unfortunately, it falls far short of that objective in its current form –
to the extent that it could actually make adults and children *less safe *
online*. *
The bill contains glaring loopholes that could allow some of the actors
most responsible for harm online to avoid oversight and regulation. Media
entities are exempt based on incredibly lenient criteria which would allow
nefarious actors to launder harmful content. The democratic importance
exemption would let politicians' online speech stay up regardless of its
vast reach and potential to cause harm. Paid ads are left in scope despite
their demonstrable role in spreading disinformation and hate. All of this
serves to create a two-tiered system in which some of the most harmful
actors are given precedence, prioritising their freedom of speech over the
regular user. We’re demanding online regulation that protects all of our
human rights *equally. *These loopholes have severe implications not just
for the UK, but for the global community as well. If this new regime does
not address them, the UK could become the world’s “disinformation
laundromat”.
*We’re urging orgs and individuals from anywhere in the world concerned
with democracy, children’s safety, disinformation, public health, climate
change or other related causes to sign this letter to the UK Government
<
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tyCCU9ms7AlMdieIl4zEGlBHf7n8snCttyQf4pB…
calling
on them to close the loopholes and build a more robust human rights
framework that applies equally. *In addition to this letter, we’re kicking
off a public advocacy campaign on July 4th with significant digital spend
behind it to further raise awareness about the OSB’s dangerous loopholes.
*You can sign on by adding your name in the format shown at the bottom of
the document. *
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!
Many thanks,
Matt
*P.S. Please feel free to forward this on to additional orgs and
individuals you think would consider signing with matt(a)fairvote.uk
<matt(a)fairvote.uk> cc'ed. Thank you! *
On Fri, 1 Jul 2022 at 13:05, Eric Luth <eric.luth(a)wikimedia.se> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> Thanks for the summary, Dimi.
Interesting read on the Digital Commons,
> happy to see that the Swedish government also supported.
> On Copyright reform, the Swedish
government has sent its proposal on
> copyright reform to the council on legislation, which is the last step
> before it goes to parliament. We are currently analyzing the proposal,
and
> working with MPs to improve the worst parts and safeguard the best.
> Best
> *Eric Luth*
> Projektledare engagemang och påverkan | Project Manager, Involvement and
> Advocacy
> Wikimedia Sverige
> eric.luth(a)wikimedia.se
> +46 (0) 765 55 50 95
> Stöd fri kunskap, bli medlem i
Wikimedia Sverige.
> Läs mer på blimedlem.wikimedia.se
> Den tors 30 juni 2022 kl 17:58 skrev Jan Gerlach <jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org
>:
>> Many thanks for another great
update, Dimi!
>>
>> Alex, the Foundation's Global Advocacy team is tracking the UK Online
>> Safety Bill and we have published our first impressions on the text here
>> <
https://medium.com/wikimedia-policy/early-impressions-of-the-uk-online-safe…
.
> We're in touch with various allies of our movement in the UK and plan to
> further engage on the bill when appropriate.
>
> Thanks for your interest!
> Jan
>
> On Thu, Jun 30, 2022 at 8:32 AM Alex Stinson <astinson(a)wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Demi and list?
>>
>> Is anyone following the UK law at:
>>
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-bill-supporting-do…
>>
>>
>> Curious if we are watching that in connection with other
Disinfo/Content
>> moderation laws.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Alex
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 30, 2022 at 12:16 PM Dimi Dimitrov <dimi(a)wikimedia.be>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The French government has vowed to invest money in the commons. Rub
>>> your eyes, read it again and then continue reading below.
>>>
>>> ====================
>>>
>>> DIGITAL COMMONS
>>>
>>> ====================
>>>
>>> It still surprises us to be able to put “French government” and
>>> “investment in the digital commons” together, but here we go: The
French
>>> Presidency of the Council of the EU
came up with a plan how the old
>>> continent can compete with dominant US tech companies. The plan is to
have
>>> more “digital commons”, which can be
anything open source, including
>>> software, code libraries, tools, repositories. The basic thinking is
that
>>> if fundamental tools and libraries
are accessible to all players,
this will
>>> level the playing field. [1]
>>>
>>> —
>>>
>>> 19 EU Member Countries and the Commission presented the idea of
digital
>>> commons at the Digital Assembly in
Toulouse. They acknowledge that
there
>>> are many instances of working digital
commons, but also point out that
>>> oftentimes projects lack long-term, structural support. The plan
envisages
>>> financial help and a “one-stop-shop”
to find government support. [2]
>>>
>>> —
>>>
>>> Funds in the ballpark of tens of millions of euros are already
pledged,
>>> but the concrete details are still in
the making. Thanks to the
leadership
>>> of Wikimédia France, our movement and
a group of partners (Europeana,
>>> Communia, OpenStreetMap) are part of this conversation from the
start.
We
>>> especially want to show that
governments can often help by removing
legal
>>> and administrative obstacles, not
just by peddling money. [3]
>>>
>>> ======
>>>
>>> CSAM
>>>
>>> ======
>>>
>>> We wrote about the proposal of the Commission to regulate the online
>>> moderation of “Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)” in last month’s
report
>>> [4]. While it is a very important
issue to tackle, we do have great
>>> concerns with parts of the text, especially provisions that would
allow
>>> scanning all online chats on a given
platform. We are still analysing
how
>>> exactly, if at all, this would impact
Wikimedia projects. In the
meantime,
>>> we can offer a short briefing. [5]
>>>
>>> —
>>>
>>> On the legislative side, the start feels very bumpy: The European
>>> Parliament probably won’t refer the file to a committee until
September or
>>> October, while ample criticism is
pouring in, including from the
German
>>> government. [6]
>>>
>>> =========
>>>
>>> Net Neutrality
>>>
>>> =========
>>>
>>> The European Commission plans to push out a new legislative proposal
>>> after the summer that is expected to include provisions forcing some
>>> service providers to pay for data traffic (think Facebook and Netflix
>>> paying Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica). While this is a classic
example of
>>> a lobbying battle between very large
telecommunications companies and
very
>>> large tech companies, it also would
violate some basic principles of
net
>>> neutrality. A group of civil society
organisations, led by EDRi, sent
a
>>> letter to the relevant Commissioners
outlining the main issues. [7]
>>>
>>> —
>>>
>>> On the bright side, BEREC, the EU’s body of telecoms regulators, has
>>> updated its net neutrality guidelines to close some loopholes and
>>> effectively ban zero rating of data for some applications. [8]
>>>
>>> =============
>>>
>>> Disinformation
>>>
>>> =============
>>>
>>> The European Commission has presented an updated Code of Practice on
>>> Disinformation. [9] Wikimedia had not signed up the original Code,
because
>>> we deemed it was mainly focused on
“follow the money”, hence where
>>> disinformation is spread through advertising and paid reach. The
version
>>> will allow researchers more access to
data of large platforms and
again
>>> focus on advertising.
>>>
>>> —
>>>
>>> The Code of Practice is a voluntary initiative for online platforms,
>>> but taking part in it essentially removes some obligations under the
newly
>>> created Digital Services Act.
>>>
>>> =============
>>>
>>> Italian Dramas
>>>
>>> =============
>>>
>>> The Italian government published new draft guidelines about public
data
>>> (open government) and opened a
consultation. [10] They basically
state that
>>> open government and open data
provisions don’t apply to institutions
>>> related to culture, which is a very Italian thing. We wonder if this
is in
>>> line with the Public Sector
Information Directive and will
investigate with
>>> Wikimedia Italia, which are also
participating in the consultation.
>>>
>>> —
>>>
>>> The Italian government has been on a roll. It also published the draft
>>> national digitisation plan. It would establish an administrative fee
for
>>> the commercial use of all public
domain digitisations of cultural
>>> institutions. It essentially outlaws CC0 as a relevant license for
most
>>> GLAMs in the country and circumvents
the public domain safeguard
enshrined
>>> in the latest copyright directive.
There was a public consultation
until 15
>>> June which Wikimedia Italy and
partners participated in. Expect blog
posts
>>> on Diff and on wikimedia.brussels
soon.
>>>
>>> =============
>>>
>>> Polish & Czech Copyright Reforms
>>>
>>> =============
>>>
>>> The Czech copyright reform is in parliament. We have a Czech language
>>> copy. [11] The Polish government published its proposal, which will
go
to
>>> parliament very soon. We have a rough
English translation. [12] If you
>>> consider yourself a copyright geek, enjoy reading them. If you want
to
help
>>> our national partners advocating on
this, get in touch! :)
>>>
>>> ====
>>>
>>> END
>>>
>>> ====
>>>
>>> [
1]https://twitter.com/AmbNum/status/1540657835427741699
>>>
>>> [2]
>>>
>>>
>>> [3]
>>>
https://www.wikimedia.fr/pour-un-developpement-des-communs-numeriques-a-lec…
>>>
>>> [4]
>>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.or…
>>>
>>> [5]
>>>
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dD5AF8-uk2LFG7mu62AK7S80H4CrF1ftV7lheE6…
>>>
>>> [6]
>>>
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/06/27/germany-says-hell-no-to-eu-proposal-to-…
>>>
>>> [7]
>>>
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Q4d13xqr5UsPkoSMw7d_3YL-hZnq4cL/view?usp=…
>>>
>>> [
8]https://fossbytes.com/europe-bans-zero-rating-internet-offers/
>>>
>>> [9]https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_3664
>>>
>>> [10]
>>>
>>> .
>>>
>>> [11]
>>>
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J7dvl4yEk6ScWIIypdI6Uq_7273T7G5i/edit?u…
>>>
>>> [12]
>>>
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N0ArQkgpZkQQcdpsidS_Yc-bS5liQsl5/view?usp=…
>>>
>>> Wikimedia Belgium vzw
>>> BE 0563.775.480 - RPR Brussel
>>> Antwerpselaan 40 Boulevard d’Anvers 1000 Brussel/Bruxelles
>>>
www.wikimedia.be
>>> info(a)wikimedia.be
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>>> To unsubscribe send an email to
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Alex Stinson
>> Lead Program Strategist
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> Twitter: @sadads
>>
>> Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and
>> other Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new
contributors
>>> through campaigns:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
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--
*Rita Jonusaite**Advocacy Coordinator *| EU DisinfoLab
+32 488 59 70 70 (WhatsApp/Signal)
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