EU one-hour content takedown bill gaining speed
Security head hopes anti-terror act becomes law by end of year • Wants more cooperation with Israel
The EU has proposed a law to force social media to take down jihadist content within one hour of being warned by authorities, EU Commissioner for Security Sir Julian King announced on Tuesday.
Speaking at the ICT-IDC Herzliya conference, King made the stunning revelation and expressed hope that the EU will adopt the legislation by the end of 2019.
King’s discussion of the bill signaled the sea of change in nation-state’s approach to social media, after the US presidential election in 2016 and more recent European elections were interfered with by Russia and others using concerted social media and disinformation campaigns.
The EU security chief also discussed an increasing focus on fighting and regulating threats from drones.
To that extent, he noted an October 17 conference where he said a number of important Israeli experts are expected to attend and significantly contribute on the issue.
King also announced that the EU is pushing forward with trying to combat new dangers by jihadists trying to use makeshift chemical weapons.
He said that the EU is promulgating rules and implementing new databases for following and limiting access to chemicals that are normally safe, but which could be misused by jihadists.
King also discussed cooperation with Israel, saying he was struck by how much Israeli help had improved counter-terror efforts in Nice, France, following the 2016 truck terror attack.
He said that he hoped Israel would sign a proposed information-sharing agreement to enhance that cooperation with the entire EU.
A fascinating presentation at the conference came from Nigerian Army Chief of Policy and Plans Lt.-Gen. Lo Adeosun on efforts to fight the terrorist group Boko Haram.
Adeosun said that successfully fighting Boko Haram required a rethinking of the Nigerian army’s tactics to become more serious about using new forms of intelligence as well as the cyber sphere.
More specifically, Adeosun said that Nigeria had to bolster and relocate its special forces to Maiduguri, closer to the frontlines, to improve their rapid response time to incidents.
The move also improved Nigerian special forces situation awareness, he said.
Adeosun was accompanied by Nigeria’s special forces commander and its cyber chief.
The Nigerian cyber chief said that the army was developing a wide-ranging cyber capability, with an increasing number of native Nigerians involved and capable of training their own.
Addressing the high drama in US negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan, Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler of Germany, former UN official on ISIL, al-Qaeda and the Taliban, said that any deal with the US could lead to a splitting up of the different factions that make up the Taliban, and could hurt al-Qaeda, while helping ISIL.
Alternatively, he said that if al-Qaeda played its cards right, it could absorb some of the disgruntled Taliban fighters who do not want a deal with the US.
Schindler also said that he viewed the Taliban/al-Qaeda linkage as a ticking bomb that could blow up the negotiations with the US.
He noted that the Taliban had only committed that they would not allow their territory to be used for plotting global jihad (beyond Afghanistan’s borders, which they said is their focus), but have refused to break ties with al-Qaeda (which is permanently committed to global jihad.)
Finally, Schindler said that because of the many disparate terrorist groups in Afghanistan, even a best-case deal with the US was not likely to significantly reduce the overall level of violence in the region.