International Relations
Interview
China’s EVs and European Disunity: A Geoeconomic Playbook
7 October 2024
29 May 2019
In April, the Austrian government announced that in the near future (2020) they will introduce a so-called “digital anonymity ban”. The new law – “Diligence and Responsibility on the Web” – will mandate that to post a comment on the internet users will have to provide their first name, last name and address to platform operators.
“The legal requirements that are valid in the analog world must also be valid in the digital world” Media Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) said.
V/I asked four young experts from the V4 if this move was a step in the right direction? Do we have the right to know whether we are dealing with a real person or a bot? How important is transparency in such matters?
It remains unclear if the Austrian concept is compliant with European Union law. The European Court of Justice in 2016 said (through the paired rulings of C-203/15 and C-698/15) that the member states cannot impose a general obligation of data retention on telecommunication providers and operators (and this is the case in Blumel’s proposal).