Civil liberties MEPs on Monday night approved plans to create a law that will block terrorist content online.

The counter terrorism directive also deals with terrorism training and financing as well as “Internet propaganda, and the misuse of the Internet for terrorist purposes." It was passed by 41 votes to four, with 10 abstentions meaning that the parliament’s chief negotiator, German MEP Monika Hohlmeier, can now start talks with the European ministers for justice and home affairs on a final text.

The initial draft proposal contained no reference to online activity, but Hohlmeier introduced two new sections taken in part from the EU law against child sex abuse. Under the latest wording, national authorities must take measures to ensure the prompt removal of illegal content hosted from within their territory that constitutes public incitement to commit a terrorist offence. If this is not feasible, they may take the necessary measures to block access to such content “while adhering to transparent procedure, adequate safeguards, and subject to judicial review.”

“It’s easy to ban something on the Internet, but of course you can’t ban everything, and if people use terrorist-related Internet facilities, then they will be correspondingly dealt with," said Hohlmeier in a press conference.

“Although of course you can’t prevent people, and you wouldn’t want to prevent people, from conducting legitimate searches,” she added, raising the possibility of monitoring of search terms. Hohlmeier added that she had also wanted “further controls” on Bitcoin activities to be able to trace financial sources. Perhaps she forgot that the European Parliament recently voted for a hands-off approach to Bitcoin and blockchain regulation.

To the relief of digital rights activists, neither of the items on Hohlmeier's wishlist are currently included in the proposed law unveiled today.

Hohlmeier said that the proposal strikes the right balance between security on the one hand and data protection and freedom of expression on the other. “It’s not so much a question of whether terrorists are using particular ways to hide on the Internet, or encryption, but they very often have perfect propaganda machinery. Our approach is to try to close websites, and if this is not possible to block these Internet websites,” she said.

She added that enhanced cooperation was needed between police and justice authorities as well as private actors.

European digital rights organisation EDRi says, however, that fundamental rights are “threatened by unclear provisions on key issues like Internet blocking and encryption." Terms such as “radicalisation” and the “glorification of terrorism” are not clearly defined.

“Speed is being prioritised over quality. The calculation appears to be that it is better for the EU to be seen to be doing ‘something’ rather than taking its time to adopt legislation that is actually fit for the purpose,” said Joe McNamee, executive director of EDRi. “An unclear, confused, rushed, and populist directive risks being significantly worse than no legislation at all.”

He believes the whole process has been rather opaque: members of the civil liberties committee had put forward 438 amendments before agreeing to compromises in secret meetings, and the discussion between the member states and MEPs will also take place behind closed doors. “This will then be rubber-stamped by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and, afterwards, it will be up to the Member States to implement their interpretations of the unclear provisions in the Directive. It is during this process where any lack of clarity of the legislation will cause damage, with unpredictable consequences,” said McNamee.

The United Left’s lead MEP on the committee, Cornelia Ernst, agreed: “The new directive was rushed through the LIBE Committee in less than six months with total disregard for criticism. Only after those closed-door negotiations will the Parliament have the chance to debate the content of the new directive. However, then it will be too late for MEPs to change it.”

“In addition, there was no impact assessment of existing counterterrorism instruments by the Commission. This directive contradicts the right to privacy and protection of one's personal data as well as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights,” she added.