The European Commission has issued a consultation paper on the procedures for notifying and acting on illegal content hosted by online intermediaries in Article 14 of the E-Commerce Directive (2001/31/EC) (notice and take-down procedures). Respondents are asked for their views on whether terms such as "hosting", "actual knowledge", "awareness" and "expeditiously" are sufficiently clear; whether activities of platforms such as social networks, search engines and blogs should be considered as "hosting"; whether service providers should consult providers of alleged illegal content; if content is illegal, how hosting service providers should act (should they remove and/or disable content); how quickly a service provider should act (as quickly as possible or within a predefined period); whether different categories of illegal content require different approaches; how unjustified action against legal content should be addressed; whether service providers should be protected against liability that could result from taking pro-active steps; and the appropriate role of the EU in the functioning of notice and take-down procedures. The consultation period ends on 5 September 2012.

Source: A clean and open Internet: Public consultation on procedures for notifying and acting on illegal content hosted by online intermediaries, 4 June 2012.