(New York, N.Y. / Brussels, Belgium) – The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) urges EU countries to comply with Terror Content Online Regulation.

On Thursday, January 26, the European Commission sent letters of formal notice to 22 Member States* for not complying with several of the obligations required by the Terrorist Content Online (TCO) regulations. The countries now have two months in which to address the shortcomings and respond to the Commission.

Reacting to the statement released by the European Commission, Lucinda Creighton, senior advisor in Europe to CEP, said:

“It is a huge disappointment to learn that the majority of EU Member States still fail to comply with the requirements of the TCO. This regulation was put in place to protect Europeans from hateful and dangerous content online and it is therefore unacceptable that the European Commission should have to police the compliance of Member States with the regulation. CEP was the driving force behind the TCO and strongly believes that the policies adopted by the EU are essential if we are to stop the spread of terrorist content online.

“When some of the most horrific terrorist attacks in memory occurred in Brussels, Paris, London, or Berlin, EU leaders promised that ‘Never Again’ would this be tolerated. It seems just a few years later that this resolve has diminished. European politicians need to live up to the commitments made, and implement, with urgency, the tools that have been agreed at EU level.”

* The countries are Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden.