The goals that the German federal government is pursuing with its National Action Plan on Energy Efficiency Strategy 2050 are certainly ambitious. As a member of the government’s Working Group on Digitalisation, eco too is participating in the dialogue process to bring life to these goals.

The ICANN69 Annual General Meeting (AGM) will not take place in Hamburg from 17-22 October 2020 as originally planned, 2,500 participants from over 120 countries had been expected. The meeting to coordinate core Internet functions, such as the unique assignment of names and addresses, has been moved online.

This Tuesday morning, the German government, the Robert Koch Institute and participating companies presented the German federal government's new COVID-19 tracking app, the Corona WarnApp. eco – Association of the Internet Industry, which has actively accompanied the discussion on the development of the new app from the very beginning, advocates the use of the data protection-compliant app and hopes for broad acceptance within the German population. However, eco rejects a legal obligation to install the app.

The EU Commission presented new measures to combat disinformation in connection with the coronavirus on 10 June 2020. With the new guidelines, operators of social networks are now to report monthly on how they deal with false information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

eco: a legally and planning secure regulatory environment is the basic prerequisite for the predominantly private-sector expansion of gigabit networks as the most important pillar for achieving the German and European gigabit targets. The association views an expansion obligation with concern.

Due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), ICANN68 will no longer be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Instead, the Policy Forum in June will be held virtually.

Speakers: RTX21 (Ekaterina Bozoukova) and Clifford Chance (to be announced).

eco Chair Oliver J. Süme: “GAIA-X paves the way for a new level of digital sovereignty, which at the same time goes hand in hand with high European data protection requirements and reliable IT security.”

When the EU passed the E-Commerce Directive (ECD) 20 years ago it built a solid ground for the years to come and it found long lasting balance between regulation and entrepreneurial freedoms. It was not perfect in the beginning and there are still questions about details nowadays. However, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has so far found ways for interpretations that made it possible for companies to flourish and for users to experience and enjoy a completely new world being created. But are there maybe also good reasons to taking a closer look at the ECD? For many, especially young people, news sources have changed – from classic newspapers and TV to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. Disinformation is spreading online, hate speech is used online and illegal content is shared online. That is where social media companies are acting in a grey zone, moderating content by blocking or deleting it. That is where especially politicians want to see more, quicker and transparent action.