Regulation (EU) 2021/784 of 29 April 2021 on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online (thereafter, the “TCO Regulation”) is directly applicable in all Member States of the European Union since 7 June 2022. It lays down uniform rules to ensure that hosting service providers, which make user content available to the public, addressing the misuse of their services for the dissemination to the public of terrorist content.
In concrete terms, the TCO Regulation imposes
- on the one hand, hosting service providers to comply with a number of obligations in order to strengthen the fight against the online dissemination of terrorist content and,
- on the other hand, each Member State to designate one or more authorities responsible for implementing the regulation (e.g. sanctions for non-compliance).
What is a terrorist content?
The TCO Regulation defines terrorist content as one or more of the following types of material, namely material (text, image, sound recording, video, as well as live transmissions of terrorist offences) which:
- incites the commission of terrorist offences, where such material, directly or indirectly advocates the commission of such offences (such as by the glorification of terrorist acts), thereby causing a danger that one or more such offences may be committed;
- solicits a person or a group of persons to commit or contribute to the commission of this type of offence;
- solicits a person or a group of persons to participate in the activities of a terrorist group;
- provides instruction on the making or use of explosives, firearms or other weapons or noxious or hazardous substances, or on other specific methods or techniques for the purpose of committing or contributing to the commission of this type of offence;
- constitutes a threat to commit a terrorist offence.
However, the TCO Regulation specifies that “Material disseminated to the public for educational, journalistic, artistic or research purposes or for the purposes of preventing or countering terrorism, including material which represents an expression of polemic or controversial views in the course of public debate, shall not be considered to be terrorist content. An assessment shall determine the true purpose of that dissemination and whether material is disseminated to the public for those purposes.”. The TCO Regulation seeks to contribute to the protection of public security while establishing appropriate and robust safeguards to ensure the protection of fundamental rights, including the right to freedom of expression and information.
Which service providers are concerned by the TCO Regulation?
The TCO Regulation is applicable to all hosting service providers, i.e. an information society service storing information provided by a content provider upon his request, insofar as they disseminate information to the public. The content provider is a user that has provided information that is, or that has been, stored and disseminated to the public by the hosting service provider.
The service providers concerned are therefore, for example, providers of social media, video, image and audio-sharing services, as well as file-sharing services and other cloud services, insofar as those services are used to make the stored information available to the public at the direct request of the content provider.
Finally, in order to protect users throughout the European Union, and taking into account the fact that terrorist contents are often distributed to the public through services offered by hosting service providers established in third countries, the TCO Regulation applies to providers from the moment they offer their service in the Union, i.e. irrespective of their country of main establishment. Therefore, non-European providers are also affected.