How to effectively and systematically tackle illegal and harmful content online?

In the European Union, including Slovakia, there are intense discussions on how to crack down on online content that constitutes criminal offenses and threatens the public interest. The spread of disinformation, child pornography, cyberbullying, and hate speech online is causing incalculable damage in the real world. Many organizations, institutions, companies, and civic activists are looking for ways to effectively prevent this damage while protecting the democratic values on which our society is built.

The final version of the Digital Services Regulation is being negotiated at EU level, which aims to build a unique way of supervising large digital platforms and their functioning. At the same time, intensive work is underway to develop a new, strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation.

• But will these steps be enough?
• How does Slovakia participate in them?
• How can our information space be protected without restricting freedom of expression and dissemination of information?
• What implications do initiatives against dangerous online content have on media pluralism?

Together with GLOBSEC, the Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission and Gerulata Technologies, we organized a webinar on December 14, 2021, where we discussed these and other topics with:

• Ľuboš Kukliš, Director of the Office of the Council for Broadcasting and Retransmissions and Chair of the European Platform of Regulators EPRA
• Miroslava Sawiris, Research Analyst at Centre for Democracy & Resilience, GLOBSEC 
• Tomáš Kriššák, information security expert at Gerulata Technologies
• Vladimír Šnídl, journalist of Denník N

The webinar was moderated by:

• Rasťo Kužel, Executive Director of the NGO MEMO 98

For more information, please visit MEMO98’s website:

https://memo98.sk/article/ako-bojovat-proti-nelegalnemu-a-skodlivemu-obsahu-na-internete

This event is part of the project “European voters – together for electoral integrity” and funded by the European Union as part of the Europe for Citizens (EfC) programme.

Project partners:

• Germany: European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE)
• Poland: Political Accountability Foundation
• Hungary: Unhack Democracy
• Romania: International Elections Study Center (IESC)
• Sweden: Swedish International Liberal Centre (SILC)
• Slovakia: MEMO 98