Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission
2.6.2022
There is no EU legislation that provides for EU-wide network blocking[1]. There are national and EU provisions on tackling illegal content on the Internet. In any event, the Digital Services Act[2], for example, will introduce additional safeguards to ensure that any limitation to access content is proportionate and balanced.
The objective of DNS4EU[3] is the deployment of a free EU-based public recursive Domain Name System (DNS) resolver, offering very high performance, reliability and protection against global cybersecurity threats and threats specific to the EU.
This initiative addresses the lack of significant EU investment in such a service and the ongoing consolidation of the public DNS resolution market and will increase overall Internet resiliency.
The call for DNS4EU refers to filtering in relation to cybersecurity (e.g. malicious domains), opt-in filtering based on explicit user choices (e.g. parental control), and lawful filtering.
The latter refers to domains which lead to illegal content violating EC law or the national legislation of Member States, where the violation as such and the explicit request to filter these domains within a specific geographical scope has been established following applicable legal procedures. These rules already apply to existing DNS resolvers.
Lastly, DNS4EU shall ensure a very high level of data protection and privacy according to EU rules, e.g. no monetisation of personal data, and shall adhere to the latest security and privacy standards. Hence, DNS4EU will be a valuable additional choice for EU citizens.
- [1] https://edoc.coe.int/en/Internet/7289-pdf-comparative-study-on-blocking-filtering-and-take-down-of-illegal-Internet-content-.html
- [2] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_2545
- [3] https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/cef/wp-call/2021/call-fiche_cef-dig-2021-cloud_en.pdf