Ongoing Projects
Technological and communication trends have enabled and accelerated terrorism related threats worldwide, including in the European Union. Terrorists and violent extremist groups and individuals have increasingly leveraged the internet to radicalise individuals, plan and execute attacks, and secure financial resources. Against this background, Regulation (EU) 2021/784 on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online (TCO) was adopted in 2021 to limit the dissemination of terrorist content in the online sphere.
ICCT partners with Ecorys Europe, RadarAdvies, and Spark Legal and Policy Consulting to conduct a study that was commissioned by DG Home – European Commission to assess the application of the TCO Regulation and its impact in combatting terrorist content online, allowing guidance for future policy decisions. As such, this evaluation will reflect on the application of the TCO Regulation (summative), drawing lessons learnt, and pointing towards strengths and possible avenues for improvement (formative). The study covers the period from the application of the TCO, starting June 2022 until the end of 2024 in all 27 EU Member States. More specifically, the study team will focus on:
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Assessing the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, and EU-added value of the TCO Regulation;
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Collecting and analysing data under the monitoring programme established by the European Commission;
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Evaluating the functioning and effectiveness of the safeguard mechanisms;
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Assessing the impact of the application of the TCO Regulation on fundamental rights, in particular, the freedom of expression and information, the respect for private life, as well as on the protection of personal data;
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Determining the contribution of the TCO Regulation to the protection of public security;
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Evaluating the necessity and feasibility of establishing a European platform for terrorist content online to facilitate communication and cooperation.
ICCT focuses on a specific case study that examines the TCO Regulation's application from the perspective of Hosting Service Providers (HSPs). It will assess the definition of HSPs (Article 2 of the TCO Regulation) to clearly identify those providers that fall under the scope of the TCO Regulation and are subject to its obligations (such as removing terrorist content within one hour of receiving a removal order) and the other online providers of services that do not fall under this legislation.
Partners
