At its meeting of 6 December 2018, the JHA Council adopted its general approach to the proposed regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online. This proposal had been submitted by the European Commission on 12 September 2018, following a call by EU leaders in June.

The aim of the planned legislation is to establish binding rules for hosting service providers (HSPs) offering services in the EU (whether or not they have their main establishment in the Member States) to rapidly remove terrorist content, where necessary.

HSPs will have to remove terrorist content or disable access to it within one hour of receiving a removal order from a national authority. If HSPs do not comply with removal orders, financial penalties can be imposed on them.

Furthermore, service providers will have to apply certain duties of care to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content on their services. This may vary, depending on the risk and level of exposure of the service to terrorist content.

The establishment of points of contact to facilitate the handling of removal orders and referrals has been designed to improve cooperation between law enforcement authorities and service providers.

With the adopted general approach, the Council is ready to start negotiations.