On 16 March 2021 the Council adopted, at first reading, a Regulation on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online. This follows the provisional agreement on the text that was reached between the Council presidency and the European Parliament on 10 December 2020.

Competent authorities in Member States will have the power to issue removal orders to service providers, requiring them to remove terrorist content or disable access to it in all Member States. Internet platforms will then have to remove or disable access to the content within one hour.

The rules will apply to all providers offering services in the EU, whether or not they have their main establishment in one of the Member States.

The text now needs to be adopted by the European Parliament at second reading before being published in the EU Official Journal. The Regulation will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication and will start to apply one year later in 2022. To read the Council’s press release in full and for access to the agreed text, click here.