When even the experts are struggling, it  should set off alarm bells. The net neutrality issue is hotting up in the European Parliament, but who really understands what is happening?  It has been under scrutiny from the various committees and is now with the Industry committee for a vote in a couple of weeks time. The signs are that  the rapporteur, Pilar Del Castillo,  is being challenged, but there are concerning indications that MEPs will give in to amendments that put at risk not only  the structure of the Internet, but of the whole telecoms market.

Read more: Net neutrality gets final scrutiny in EU Parliament - should we be alarmed?

 If the government were to mandate a privately-funded body to handle adult content blocking it would be ‘a species of censoring... without any obligation of prior judicial approval’  

A report on the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)  - a UK-based Hotline to report the most serious cases of child abuse on the Internet –  by the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken (now Lord) MacDonald, has a lot to say about the difficulties of a take-down regime for adult content, suggesting that the IWF drop such content from its remit. In the broader discussions around Internet content blocking, his rationale is  interesting. He concludes  that there would be  serious risks to free speech  rights "if" a privately-funded bodywere to be  given Internet take-down powers over 'sensitive' content. As Iptegrity readers will know, guarantees of fundamental rights under  EU law mean that a court ruling is required before governments can

Read more: Adult content takedowns need judicial ruling, says former public prosecutor

It was thought to have died, but  this week week it was given a new lease of life. This is the Notice and Action directive which will regulate take-down requests to Google, FaceBook and other online content platforms, and which   is now set  to come back onto the EU policy agenda.  This was revealed  on Tuesday in the European Parliament by Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier, who is responsible for the dossier.

Read more: Notice of Action! EU Commission to revive take-down directive