Brussels, 28 September 2017
Today, the European Commission published its communication on “Tackling Illegal Content Online: Towards an enhanced responsibility of online platforms”.
We welcome the Commission’s stance that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online” – this is paramount to the protection of intellectual property and copyright in particular.
We also agree that online platforms “carry a significant societal responsibility in terms of protecting users online and preventing criminals from exploiting their platforms.” The communication rightly stresses the need for online platforms to be more responsible in preventing, removing and disabling illegal content.
We hope that the Commission’s approach will bear swift results and that online platforms will contribute to building a fair and responsible online environment. As representatives of the 11 million individuals in Europe’s creative and cultural sectors, we believe in the value of creativity, and we expect that online platforms play fair when making use of such value
