[Manila Principles] Zero-draft template notice of content restriction for comment

[Jeremy Malcolm]

Dear Manila Principles community,

As we have been foreshadowing for a while, the core team behind the
original Manila Principles initiative have been working on a draft for a
supplementary text, which complements paragraphs 3(d) and (e) of the
Principles.[0]  The new text is a template for a notice that should be
sent to users when someone complains about their content and seeks its
restriction.  The impetus for this work was that many of the notices
being sent to users by intermediaries are incomplete or inaccurate, and
have the effect of scaring users rather than assisting them.

The template is flexible enough to encompass various types of liability
regime, including those that are non-compliant with the Manila
Principles such as notice and action regimes (for which the notice
serves to inform the user of whatever counter-notice or appeals
mechanisms exist), as well as those that are potentially compliant, such
as a Canadian-style notice and notice regime.

We invite your comments on the general approach taken in the draft, and
on the current text.  Editable versions are attached, and a Google Doc
version is below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tEDj0XlqlRCRLouEKO1q7U6wixSf9qxemdKlwN_Gqvw/edit?usp=sharing

For this initial round of comments, we ask for you to respond within 30
days.  Once initial comments are in, we will then set a timetable for
the revisions that we need to make, and release a further draft.  Once
the text has been finalised, we also plan to explore ways of presenting
it in an interactive questionnaire-type format that will make it more
user friendly to read and to complete.  So, please bear this in mind if
your comments would be that the form is "too confusing" - it will be
less confusing in its final format.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to raise them on
the list or with myself or any other Manila Principles steering
committee member.  Many thanks for your input and support.

---

[0] (d) Intermediaries who host content may be required by law to
respond to content restriction requests pertaining to unlawful content
by either forwarding lawful and compliant requests to the user content
provider, or by notifying the complainant of the reason it is not
possible to do so  (‘notice and notice’). Intermediaries should not be
required to ensure they have the capacity to identify users.

(e) When forwarding the request, the intermediary must provide a clear
and accessible explanation of the user content provider’s rights,
including in all cases where the intermediary is compelled by law to
restrict the content a description of any available counter-notice or
appeal mechanisms

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Global Policy Analyst
Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://eff.org
jmalcolm at eff.org

Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161

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