EU Internet Forum welcomes new members to combat harmful and illegal content online

They have joined 17 digital companies that are already part of the Forum, alongside member states, EU institutions, EU agencies, the Global Internet Forum on Counter-Terrorism and the UN Centre for Counter-Terrorism. As such, they will actively contribute to addressing the challenges posed by the presence of harmful and illegal content online.

Keeping the Internet free from illegal and harmful content is essential in the fight against terrorists, criminal groups, child abusers and other groups involved in malicious and illicit activities. Throughout this mandate, the Commission has implemented the Security Union strategy, its counter-terrorism program and the EU strategy to combat organized crime. This has enabled concrete measures to be taken to combat terrorism in all its forms, both online and offline. In particular, the Commission has worked towards a safer Internet and has adopted a number of initiatives in this area, including the Regulation on Terrorist Content Online. The legislation on digital services requires platforms to put in place measures to combat the distribution of illegal content online. The Commission has launched several formal proceedings under digital services legislation, notably against X and Meta, linked to concerns about illegal content.

The Commission continues to work with digital businesses in the EU Internet Forum to combat the misuse of the internet by violent extremists and terrorists. The EU Internet Forum, launched by the Commission in December 2015, combats the misuse of the internet for violent extremist and terrorist purposes, to online child sexual abuse, drug trafficking and online human trafficking.

EUIF has been instrumental in developing concrete guidelines and tools, and has taken forward several initiatives to combat harmful and illegal content online.

Read more about the supervision of the designated very large online platforms and search engines.