The bill to prevent the spread of terrorist content online has been put out for public consultation until 8 November 2023.

In particular, the bill of the Ministry of Justice is entitled “Implementation of provisions of Regulation (EU) 2021/784 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 29, 2021 regarding the prevention of the dissemination of terrorist content on the Internet.” The regulation in question (2021/784) complements previous EU legislative and non-legislative measures concerning the fight against terrorism and in particular terrorist content on the internet.

As stated in a statement by the Ministry of Justice, the proposed bill “ensures the smooth functioning of the digital market in an open and democratic society, addressing the misuse by terrorists of the possibilities provided by the Internet for terrorist purposes (dissemination of messages, intimidation, recruitment and facilitating terrorist attacks) and contributing to public safety across the Union.

Specifically, with the bill:

• The procedure for issuing orders for the removal and control of cross-border terrorist content orders is defined, in order to effectively deal with the abuse of hosting services for the public dissemination of terrorist content.

• The competent national authorities for the issuance of orders for the removal and control of cross-border orders of terrorist content are designated.

• The establishment of a national Authority to supervise the implementation of special measures to deal with the abuse of hosting services for the public dissemination of terrorist content is envisaged, as well as its powers.

• A registry of hosting service providers is created (which is a Greek innovation and initiative), as well as a file of removal orders.

• The imposition of criminal and administrative sanctions on hospitality service providers who violate the obligations arising from the regulation in question is established.

• A framework of transparency obligations is established by the relevant national competent authorities, hosting service providers and the Ministry of Justice as responsible for collecting data on the effective implementation of the regulation and sending data to the European Commission on an annual basis.