October 2, 2017

The European Commission has published a Communication on “Tackling Illegal Content Online: Towards an enhanced responsibility of online platforms” (see item above).  IMPALA says that it welcomes the Commission’s stance that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online”.  This is “paramount to the protection of intellectual property and copyright in particular”, IMPALA says.  The Association also agrees that online platforms “carry a significant societal responsibility in terms of protecting users online and preventing criminals from exploiting their platforms.”

IMPALA says that the Communication “rightly stresses the need for online platforms to be more responsible in preventing, removing and disabling illegal content.”  It hopes that the Commission’s approach will “bear swift results” and that online platforms will “contribute to building a fair and responsible online environment”.

As a representative of the 11 million individuals in Europe’s creative and cultural sectors, IMPALA says that it believes in the value of creativity, and it expects that online platforms “play fair when making use of such value.”  To read the IMPALA press release in full, click here.