Group chats under the DSA: when do hybrid services become online platforms?

Group-based communication services such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook groups increasingly sit between private messaging and public platforms. In a new study in response to a request of the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), the ILP Lab examines under what conditions these hybrid, group-based hosting services qualify as “online platforms” under the Digital… Read more

Ransomware incident response and the legal position of private actors

Ransomware is a form of cybercrime in which data are encrypted or copied and a ransom is demanded in exchange for restoring access or preventing publication. In the Netherlands, Project Melissa brings together the Public Prosecution Service, the police cybercrime team, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Cyberveilig Nederland and private cybersecurity firms. Within this… Read more

Strengthening research TDM for the AI-era

This policy paper analyses the practical functioning of Article 3 of the CDSM Directive, which grants research organisations (ROs) and cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) a mandatory exception permitting text-and-data mining (TDM) for scientific research. Using doctrinal analysis and qualitative interviews with ROs, CHIs, publishers, and experts, the study evaluates how the exception operates in practice… Read more

Report for OFF: Demonopolizing the European public domain

Late 2004, as part of the Google Books Project, Google announced that it had entered into agreements with five of the biggest research libraries in the US to digitize books from these libraries’ collections. The goal of the project was to create a digital library and expand access to library content. Google’s plan meant that… Read more

DSA compliance handbook for Fediverse administrators

Some users are moving away from centralized platforms, such as Instagram or X, to federated social media platforms, sometimes collectively called the Fediverse. The Fediverse refers to a collection of interconnected, decentralized social media platforms bringing power back to users by letting them create their own server. The EU has meanwhile adopted the Digital Services… Read more

Policy brief on the legal obstacles to the Right to Repair

The European right to repair refers to a set of policies and regulations aimed at ensuring that consumers have the ability to repair and maintain the products they purchase. These policies are designed to counteract a trend toward products becoming more difficult to repair, due to e.g., design choices, software locks, and a lack of… Read more

Complaint against discrimination with job ads by Facebook

Facebook’s ad platform often shows job ads based on historical gender stereotypes, NGO Global Witness found when they placed genderneutral ads on the platform and reviewed the data. Ads for pilots and mechanics were shown mostly to men; ads for preschool teachers mostly to women. Global Witness together with female rights’ organisation Clara Wichmann filed… Read more

e-lending for public libraries

This policy brief examines the practice of e-lending with a focus on public libraries. Currently, public libraries face legal uncertainty regarding the legality of lending e-books due to copyright issues and the implementation of the public lending right. This policy brief aims to further provide recommendations on how to improve legal certainty on public e-lending at EU level.

Distinguishing ‘harmful’ and ‘illegal’ content in the DSA

The ILP Lab is partnering with the DSA observatory and the data rights agency AWO to investigate the proposed requirement for online intermediaries to distinguish ‘harmful’ and ‘illegal’ content on their services. In the proposal for a Digital Services Act (COM/2020/825 final), the European Commission amongst other things urges providers of intermediary services to take… Read more