The news rules are being made after concluding that a voluntary approach regarding the same wasn’t working. It had previously asked the world’s biggest social media platforms, including: Facebook, Twiter and Google, to remove terrorist propaganda within an hour.
A spokesperson for the commission had said :”With regards to terrorist content, the results have been positive but progress is not sufficient.”
The legislation, which will be proposed later this year, is the latest in a series of European efforts to put increasing regulations on big tech companies. EU data protection rules that came into effect in May, have already played a part in changing how these companies around the world collect and handle personal data.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which is owned by Google– agreed in 2016 to review and remove a majority of hate speech within 24 hours. These included racist, violent or illegal posts.
The Commission had informed the social media platforms in March to take down terrorist content within an hour of it being flagged– warning that new laws could be written if the companies did not comply. EU officials had said they would give tech firms three months to report back.
The new draft legislation has not been released yet, but it is expected to include penalties like steep fines. It also needs the approval of lawmakers and EU member countries.
Facebook , Google , and Twitter have declined to comment as of yet.