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Eyes shut, fingers crossed : the EU's governance of terrorist content online under regulation 2021/784
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Rita GSENGER and Marie-Therese SEKWENZ (eds), Digital decade : how the EU shapes digitalisation research, Baden-Baden : Nomos, 2025, Normsetzung und Entscheidungsverfahren – Schriftenreihe des Weizenbaum-Instituts für normative Wissenschaften ; 3, pp. 209-232
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ALBUS, Valerie Helene, Eyes shut, fingers crossed : the EU’s governance of terrorist content online under regulation 2021/784, in Rita GSENGER and Marie-Therese SEKWENZ (eds), Digital decade : how the EU shapes digitalisation research, Baden-Baden : Nomos, 2025, Normsetzung und Entscheidungsverfahren – Schriftenreihe des Weizenbaum-Instituts für normative Wissenschaften ; 3, pp. 209-232 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/92953
Abstract
This chapter introduces the legislative background, key provisions, and main academic debates surrounding the EU’s Terrorist Content Online Regulation (TCO Regulation). The TCO Regulation was the first EU in‐ strument to introduce legally binding rules for hosting service providers regarding the moderation of illegal content, thereby paving the way for subsequent EU Regulations, such as the Digital Services Act. The TCO Regulation establishes a new set of responsibilities for hosting service providers. On the one hand, they must respond to removal orders issued by national competent authorities and take down terrorist content within one hour. On the other, hosting service providers must take preventive measures to ensure that terrorist content remains off their platform, thereby contributing to the prevention of radicalisation and, potentially, terrorist acts. Regrettably, the modalities of the TCO Regulation may undervalue the complex assessments required to determine whether a text, image, or video constitutes terrorist content. Short deadlines and high fines, along with the fact that some Member States do not require a judicial review to issue removal orders, raise concerns regarding the over-removal of content and related risks for fundamental rights. At the same time, the limited transparency obligations for hosting service providers are a missed oppor‐ tunity to assert public oversight over platforms’ (often automated) content moderation practices. While the EU’s push for increased responsibility may have prompted hosting service providers to intensify their fight against terrorist content, the TCO Regulation created a system in which the EU Member States choose to remain ignorant as to how this is achieved.