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In January 2018, the European Commission created High Level Group (HLEG) of experts "to advise on policy initiatives to counter fake news and disinformation spread online". The multidisciplinary group consisted of 39 members and was chaired by Prof. Dr. Madeleine de Cock Buning. The report presented by the HLEG affirms that disinformation is a phenomenon that goes beyond the term "fake news", which was used misleadingly by different actors "to dismiss coverage that is simply found disagreeable." As defined in the report, disinformation "includes all forms of false, inaccurate, or misleading information designed, presented and promoted to intentionally cause public harm or for profit." The HLEG recommends a multi-dimensional approach to the problem of disinformation, consisting of five pillars: enhance transparency of...

The European Commission issued guidelines encouraging Member States and hosting service providers "to take effective, appropriate and proportionate measures to tackle illegal content online". Chapter I of the document provides general recommendations. Those include: the creation of easy to access and user-friendly mechanisms allowing the submission of notices reagarding the existence of illegal content. These mechanisms should encourage the notice provider to provide "sufficiently precise and adequately substantiated" notices "to enable the hosting provider concerned to take an informed and diligent decision in respect of the content to which the notice relates" (paragraphs 5-8) Hosting providers should inform the content providers about the notice, allowing for counter-notice procedures. However, the recommendation...

(1) In GS Media, the ECJ had to decide whether a link to materials that the copyright holder didn’t authorize were infringing communication to the public. In this case, the defendant is a popular Dutch blog that posted links to photos meant for publication in the Dutch version of Playboy magazine, but which were leaked on an Australian server by an unknown uploader. Sonoma noticed GS Media of the infringing nature of the linked material—asking for removal of the link multiple times. (2) In finding GS Media liable for copyright infringement, the Court noted however that the alleged infringer can only be held responsible for the infringing act if he had sufficient knowledge of the unauthorized publication of the linked work. (3) Also, the court established a rebuttable presumption of knowledge in cases of links made for...