Internet users beware

With new European legislation, changes are coming that will interest you

 Posted on May 31, 2021  |  6 minutes  |  1136 words  |  Marcel Kolaja

With the current pandemic, the time we spend on the Internet has increased. Every day, we are on social networks or we use one of the thousands of on-line services, such as on-line market places or file sharing platforms. Anyway, the main legislation setting the rules in this area has remained mostly unchanged for more than two decades. The Digital Services Act should help us to face the challenges of the present. [Read More]
content moderation  COVID-19  Digital Services Act  disinformation  hate speech  notice and action 

How can I verify my vote?

Why remote voting needs to be roll call

 Posted on September 14, 2020  |  4 minutes  |  790 words  |  Marcel Kolaja

Democracy needs to be preserved even during pandemics. The European Parliament, therefore—in order to make decisions—has been voting remotely since March. There is not just one single voting procedure used in the Parliament at this moment. How the Bureau of the European Parliament enabled remote voting The Bureau of the European Parliament temporarily allowed voting by e-mail back in March. In addition to it, some committees started using an internally developed voting application, which is fully dependent on the proprietary Apple platform. [Read More]
COVID-19  remote voting 

Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union

An already wasted opportunity?

 Posted on July 8, 2020  |  3 minutes  |  436 words  |  Marcel Kolaja  • Other languages: cs

Since last week, Germany took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from Croatia—the youngest Member State. Their main priorities include the recovery after COVID-19 as well as the fight with climate change. Another important goal is digitization. Two years from now, the presidency will be in the hands of Czechia, which will take over this venerable position from France. Hence, Czechia will have a unique opportunity to be heard in the Union. [Read More]
COVID-19  Czech presidency of the Council of the EU 

European joint action on disinformation

 Posted on June 24, 2020  |  2 minutes  |  354 words  |  Marcel Kolaja  • Other languages: cs

During the COVID-19 crisis, people witnessed an unprecedented amount of disinformation. Bad actors spread false information in bad faith—capitalizing on the fear and uncertainty of people—such as different conspiracy theories about the origins of the pandemic, or tried to deceive consumers by advertising fake medicine. United European action against disinformation That is the reason why the Commission decided to step up and tackle the spread of disinformation, which is outlined in their paper. [Read More]
censorship  COVID-19  disinformation 

Remote voting in the European Parliament

Why iVote is a strategic mistake

 Posted on June 17, 2020  |  3 minutes  |  512 words  |  Marcel Kolaja  • Other languages: cs

The COVID-19 crisis created a lot of challenge on many fronts. The European Parliament is not an exception. One of the challenges lies in enabling Members of the European Parliament to vote remotely while respecting law, rules of procedure, and democratic principles. Current solution for remote voting So far, bodies of the European Parliament vote remotely based on a decision of the Bureau of the European Parliament that made temporarily remote voting possible by e-mail. [Read More]
COVID-19  cyber security  remote voting 

Parliament's voice in shaping the future Internet regulation

Loud and clear on the Digital Services Act

 Posted on May 20, 2020  |  4 minutes  |  782 words  |  Marcel Kolaja  • Other languages: cs

The Digital Services Act is expected to be one of the most important pieces of legislation in this parliamentary term, enhancing the liability and safety regime of Internet platforms, services, and on-line marketplaces. Since the recovery plan of the European economy after COVID-19 crisis stands on two pillars—the Green New Deal and digitization—the urgent necessity to draft this act just right is our major task for the following months. This legislation will update the 2000s Directive on Electronic Commerce, which defined levels of protection of rights and freedoms on-line and how intermediaries—such as social media or search engines—govern users activities on their platforms. [Read More]
COVID-19  content moderation  Digital Services Act  interoperability  notice and action 

Streaming quality reduction

Was it necessary?

 Posted on May 8, 2020  |  3 minutes  |  467 words  |  Marcel Kolaja  • Other languages: cs

Lockdown, social distancing, work from home, and on-line schooling resulted in an increased demand for Internet connectivity during the coronavirus crisis. The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and the Commission stated that the network is not congested; however, that the Internet traffic is increasing. In order to avoid network congestion, the Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, called on the streaming platforms to lower the quality of streaming during the coronavirus crisis, in another words switching from high definition to a standard one. [Read More]
COVID-19  net neutrality  open Internet access 

India: The world's largest lockdown

Contact tracing app Aarogya Setu raises privacy concerns

 Posted on May 6, 2020  |  5 minutes  |  927 words  |  Marcel Kolaja  • Other languages: cs

India has adopted the largest worldwide lockdown and 1.3 billion people must stay at their homes since March 25. To prevent the virus from spreading, the Indian government developed an app called Aarogya Setu to trace COVID-19 patients or suspected cases. Recently, there have been attacks from the government on the freedoms on the Internet, so the question of the tracing app raises concerns. As a member of the delegation for relations with India in the European Parliament, I have been watching the issue of digital rights for quite some time. [Read More]
COVID-19  FOSS  Free Software  India  Open Source 

Common EU toolbox for Member States on contact tracing apps

Dos and don'ts

 Posted on April 24, 2020  |  7 minutes  |  1305 words  |  Marcel Kolaja  • Other languages: cs

As part of the gradual lifting of confinement measures, the Commission published on April 16 an EU toolbox, developed by Member States for the use of mobile applications for contact tracing and warning in response to the spreading of COVID-19. This is a very timely and welcome initiative given that certain countries started to work on their own measures, often declaring state of emergency and deprioritizing fundamental rights. Poland was one of the first Western countries to roll out an app that collects large amount of personal data, including people’s location and digital photos, in order to combat the pandemic. [Read More]
COVID-19  Free Software  FOSS  Open Source 

Censorship machine in action again!

 Posted on March 26, 2020  |  2 minutes  |  363 words  |  Marcel Kolaja  • Other languages: cs

What happened? Last week, a couple of legitimate news articles and posts about COVID-19 disappeared from Facebook. My Facebook post raising awareness about the Union’s support for start-ups to fight COVID-19 got also caught up in this. Application for funds that were made available to support start-ups able to produce solution that could fight the virus was originally open until March 18, 2020. In an attempt to spread the news to all potential interested parties, several followers of mine notified me that they weren’t able to share my post raising awareness about this or links to Commission’s website. [Read More]
Artificial Intelligence  censorship  content moderation  COVID-19  Digital Services Act  TERREG