In London on October 6, 2017, GNI convened a range of relevant stakeholders for “Addressing the Message and Protecting the Medium.” The closed roundtable discussion explored the impact of laws and policies addressing online extremism and hate speech, assessing the risks and opportunities for security, economies, and human rights, with a focus on the challenges for free expression online. The event was attended by representatives of the European Commission and Her Majesty’s Government.
“Addressing the Message and Protecting the Medium”
How can governments most effectively address concerns about content and protect human rights?
First Session: How do different intermediary liability regimes work? A comparative discussion of approaches to different forms of illegal content – e.g., piracy, hate speech, defamation, blasphemy – across various jurisdictions.
Presentation: Gabrielle Guillemin, Senior Legal Officer, Article 19
Commentators:
— Patrik Hiselius, Senior Advisor – Digital Rights, Telia Company
— Emma Llansó, Director–FreeExpression, Center for Democracy& Technology
— Prabhat Agarwal, Deputy Director Commerce and Platforms, European Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology
Lunch Presentation: Germany’s NetzDG law – how it came to be, what it says, and how it may be implemented
Presentation: Dr. Ben Wagner, Assistant Professor and Director of the Privacy & Sustainable Computing Lab at Vienna University of Economics and Business and Senior Researcher of the Centre of Internet & Human Rights
Second Session: Imagining intermediary liability for “extremist content”: How effective would it be? What are the foreseeable consequences, domestically and globally? What alternatives are available?
Presentation: Sasha Havlicek, Executive Director, Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Commentators:
— Simon Milner, Policy Director for UK, Middle East and Africa, Facebook
— Jodie Ginsberg, CEO, Index on Censorship