EU Digital Single Market Update – Online Platforms And Illegal Content

As part of its Digital Single Market strategy, the European Commission has identified the issue of combatting illegal content online as a key challenge for online platforms. It has now released guidance to online platforms containing a set of principles for tackling illegal content. The guidelines focus on three stages of the process: detecting illegal content; removing it; and preventing it from re-appearing.

The EU's Digital Single Market strategy ("DSM Strategy") was announced in May 2015.  The European Commission's goal was to create a Digital Single Market across the EU, with significant initiatives focused on sectors such as e-commerce, media and entertainment, telecoms and the provision of online services.  The EU's aim is that actions taken as part of the DSM Strategy should break down regulatory barriers and enable online and digital entities to operate in a free and fair market, and also to move the current market away from the fragmented and eclectic mix