EU Terrorist Content Online proposal – political haste and unintended consequences

In September 2018, the European Commission proposed a legislative measure to address the removal of terrorist content online. The proposal has been met with concerns from various internet companies including Cloudflare, due to its potential legal implications, practical application and possible unintended consequences. Some of these concerns include the broad definition of "terrorist content" which could lead to the removal of legitimate content, the one-hour timeframe for content removal, and the privatization of law enforcement. The proposal also does not account for the complexity and range of information society services having a storage component. Cloudflare suggests that if this proposal moves forward due to political pressure, additional due process should be required and the proposal should be significantly narrowed.