Public provocation to commit a terrorist offence: Balancing between the liberties and the security

Abstract

Modern terrorism is global and decentralized like cyberspace. While the Darknet is mostly used by terrorists for fundraising campaigns and illicit trading, publicly accessible social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube are abused for terrorist propaganda. Combating terrorism remains one of the top priorities of the European union (hereinafter as “the EU”). The approach towards the online content possibly connected to terrorist propaganda has become stricter. This paper focuses on the development of the EU legislation on the offence related to terrorist activities: the public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, as well as on the obligations of hosting service providers. It also analyses the impact of the Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on combating terrorism and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA and amending Council Decision 2005/671/JHA. The article observes a changing attitude on private monitoring of online information in the development of the EU legislation. It analyses changes in the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online. These changes signify a shift in the perception of the necessary level of freedom to receive and impart information through the internet.