Council of Europe adopts internet governance strategy

The Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers adopted on Wednesday in Strasbourg its "Internet Governance Strategy for 2016-2019," in which it recommends to the 47 members of the organization to work toward the protection of their citizens and in the fight against hate speech and violent extremism online.

"The Internet is increasingly significant in the everyday activities of European citizens. It should be a safe, secure, open and enabling environment for everyone without discrimination," the organization added.

For the four years to come, the CoE's Committee of Ministers set as priorities the issues of mass surveillance, violent radicalization, hate speech and violent extremism online.

The CoE insisted on the need to develop concrete measures in order to respond to concerns related to the protection of data and privacy.

With this objective, the organization intends to produce triennial reports on the state of data protection on the internet in Europe and to promote the creation of a network of national institutions in order to guide users on the internet who wish to demand reparations after their rights are flouted online.

Elsewhere, as part of the action plan on the prevention of the violent extremism and radicalization leading to terrorism, the CoE plans to insist on "greater emphasis on education for human rights and digital citizenship and on improving and disseminating reporting and monitoring mechanisms about hate speech."

A consultation on European education with the objective of creating a white paper on media and information literacy will be launched, the CoE added. Endit