A voluntary code of conduct for tech giants to apparently help combat illegal online hate speech was announced by the European Commission with much fanfare on Tuesday—but not everyone is happy with the deal.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and Microsoft are all on board. However, digital rights activists, who have long been suspicious of the influence such companies have on regulation, have slammed the plan saying it is “ill-considered” and very likely to be in breach of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The companies involved, which are primarily from the US, have committed to review the majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech in less than 24 hours, and remove or disable access to such content, if necessary. The current e-Commerce Directive sets out take-down procedures, but does not regulate them in detail. The Commission believes this voluntary pact will fill the gap.

But European lobby groups EDRi and Access Now—who fight for digital rights—said that what constitutes “hate speech” has been too vaguely defined.

The Commission said that “criminalising hate speech is dependent on a robust system of enforcement of criminal law sanctions,” even though the code of conduct depends on IT companies to “take the lead on countering the spread of illegal hate speech online.”

EDRi argued that this means “that law enforcement authorities will not be taking the lead.”

“IT companies will ban content that should already be legally banned. In short, the code of conduct downgrades the law to a second-class status, behind the leading role of private companies that are being asked to arbitrarily implement their terms of service,” said EDRi executive director Joe McNamee.

He decried the process as undemocratic, unaccountable, and said it “creates serious risks for freedom of expression, as legal, but controversial content may well be deleted.”

Twitter’s public policy chief in Europe, Karen White, said: “We remain committed to letting the tweets flow. However, there is a clear distinction between freedom of expression and conduct that incites violence and hate.”

The tech firms will also “endeavour to strengthen their ongoing partnerships with civil society organisations who will help flag content that promotes incitement to violence and hateful conduct.” But the two civil society organisations claimed they were “systematically excluded from the negotiations.”

“Faced with this lamentable outcome, and with no possibility to provide meaningful input to this process, the commission has left us with no other choice but to withdraw from the discussion,” said Estelle Massé, Access Now's EU policy analyst.

Meanwhile the European Ombudsman has been looking into complaints from EDRi about a lack of access to information regarding the industry group that helped set up the code of conduct.