Thread by @Policy

The Internet is at a crossroads. What happens next will define our online lives for an entire generation.

Today, in Europe, Twitter is joining @automattic @mozilla @Vimeo to call on regulators to endorse a digital future built on the #OpenInternet.

blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/c…

We need to ask ourselves: what kind of Internet do we want?

A one-size-fits-all approach fails to consider our diverse online environment and risks crippling smaller players. It risks seriously undermining fair competition and effectively helps to entrench bigger companies.

We need regulatory proposals that encourage effective collaboration and meaningful transparency between companies, regulators, and civil society.

Oversight grounded in regional and global norms can ensure company efforts are effective, durable, and protect individuals’ rights.

We encourage a content moderation discussion that emphasises the difference between illegal and harmful content and highlights the potential of interventions to address how content is surfaced and discovered.

It is more effective to limit the number of people encountering content by: placing emphasis on visibility over prevalence, supporting algorithmic transparency, limiting discoverability of harmful content, exploring community moderation and providing meaningful individual choice.

As a group, we have taken a thoughtful and collective approach, and believe the positions and principles outlined here offer a path to an online society that renews the original promise of the Internet while meeting our shared challenges.

We welcome further collaboration.

Policymakers in Europe have the opportunity to advance models of regulation that address real challenges while preserving & protecting the #OpenInternet & enshrining individual rights.

Our future online lives will be shaped by this for a generation, and the world is watching.