The European Union must hold back from making major platforms such as Facebook or Twitter liable for illegal content on their websites, the US big tech lobby urged Wednesday.
The suggestion came as the European Commission, the EU's vast regulatory arm, is busy drawing up a new set of laws to keep a tighter leash on Silicon Valley, especially when it comes to hate speech and disinformation.
The planned European Digital Services Act has triggered a lobbying frenzy in the EU's de facto capital, with internet giants worried that Brussels will muzzle its wildly succesful and profitable social platforms.
Lobbyists representing the likes of Google and Twitter warned in a letter to the commission, seen by AFP on Wednesday, that reversing limited liability would have the perverse effect of increasing hate speech online, with companies turning a blind eye to dangerous content when it occurred.
"The law should continue to assign primary liability to those users that act illegally or harm others and limit the liability of online service providers whose services are abused by others," wrote Siada El Ramly, director-general of Edima.
The lobbyist urged the continuation of the so-called "notice and action regime" where platforms are only under a legal obligation to delete illegal content when it has been flagged up.
For nearly two decades EU law has protected internet companies from almost all legal liability for user-generated content on its websites, an immunity that helped fuel social media's success.
But after a series of major scandals involving horrific terror attacks and Russian meddling in US elections, pressure is on regulators worldwide to hold Facebook, Google's Youtube and Twitter closer to account.
Asked whether limited liability should be reviewed, the EU Commissioner Thierry Breton told Les Echos newspaper that he would prefer not to, but "the world has changed" and that "platforms must obviously face up to their responsibilities."
"This can be seen both with the rise of illegal and hateful content and fake news and, more generally, the potential impact of platforms on democracy," Breton said.
Breton, a former tech CEO who handles the sensitive file, added that he had yet to decide on the issue, with a proposal probably months away. Europe in recent years has taken the lead on clamping down on US big tech companies, including billions in fines against Google as well an exhaustive data privacy law that has been imitated worldwide.
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