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17
November
2025

Regulating online terrorist content – Balancing public safety and fundamental rights

Online terrorist content is a threat to fundamental rights, rule of law and democracy. EU measures to tackle such content aim to prevent terrorism while upholding these values. FRA’s report looks at how online terrorist content is detected and removed under EU legislation. It highlights challenges in interpreting rules, risks of over-removal and potential impacts on freedom of expression. It finds that moderation practices by authorities and platforms can disproportionately affect certain groups, such as Muslims and Arabic speakers, while far-right content often receives less scrutiny. The findings, based on research and expert interviews with those addressing online terrorist content, offer ways to improve transparency in content moderation and to better balance public security and fundamental rights, contributing to wider debates on regulating online content responsibly.

Regulation (EU) 2021/784 on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online seeks to contribute to the effective protection of public security. At the same time, it acknowledges the profound impact that the application of its provisions can have on a broad range of fundamental rights and contains several important safeguards in this regard.

However, as shown by empirical findings presented in this report, addressing the proliferation of online terrorist content while respecting fundamental rights is a complex task in practice. Limited experience still exists with respect to some elements of the regulation, including key safeguards, which does not allow for the mapping of its implications on fundamental rights in full. Nevertheless, the experience of practitioners and other experts confirms that the application of the regulation affects a variety of rights, allowing for the identification of concrete challenges. Therefore, this report recommends taking different measures to:

  • ensure clarity of the definition of terrorist content and the foreseeability of its application;
  • avoid incentivising HSPs to unduly restrict freedom of expression by over-removing content;
  • avoid a discriminatory impact on particular groups and a chilling effect on their rights;
  • enhance transparency of the use of the regulation;
  • strengthen the effectiveness of the regulation in line with the proportionality principle, including by enhancing the focus of its application on right-wing terrorist content;
  • increase the effectiveness of safeguards and remedies.

These findings can assist EU institutions and Member States in assessing the need for further steps to ensure that the application of the regulation complies fully with fundamental rights. At the same time, they present a contribution to the wider discussions on regulating online content in a manner that effectively addresses the presence of illegal content while safeguarding freedom of expression and information and other rights.