Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, Article 23 (Removal of intimate, manipulated and cyber-violence material online)

The Directive binds the Member States, which must bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with it by 14 June 2027. Article 5(1) requires Member States to ensure that the intentional conduct it lists is punishable as a criminal offence.

Article 5(1), point (a), covers making accessible to the public, by means of information and communication technologies, images, videos or similar material depicting sexually explicit activities or the intimate parts of a person, without that person's consent, where such conduct is likely to cause serious harm to that person.

Article 5(1), point (b), covers producing, manipulating or altering and subsequently making accessible to the public, by means of ICT, images, videos or similar material making it appear as though a person is engaged in sexually explicit activities, without that person's consent, where such conduct is likely to cause serious harm to that person. Article 7 requires Member States to ensure that the conduct it lists as cyber harassment is punishable as a criminal offence.

Article 8(1) requires Member States to ensure that intentionally inciting violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group, defined by reference to gender, by publicly disseminating, by means of ICT, material containing such incitement is punishable as a criminal offence.

Article 23(1) requires Member States, without prejudice to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, to take the necessary measures to ensure that online publicly accessible material as referred to in Article 5(1), points (a) and (b), and Articles 7 and 8 is promptly removed or that access to it is disabled.

Those measures include the possibility for the competent authorities to issue binding legal orders to remove or to disable access to such material, and Member States must ensure that such orders meet, at least, the conditions set out in Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.

Article 23(2) provides that such orders are addressed to hosting service providers and that, where removal would not be feasible, the competent authorities may also address orders to disable access to the material to relevant intermediary service providers other than hosting service providers that have the technical and operational ability to take action regarding it.

Article 23(3) requires Member States to ensure that, where criminal proceedings regarding an offence under Article 5(1), point (a) or (b), Article 7 or Article 8 are terminated without leading to a finding that an offence has been committed, the orders are discharged and the addressees of the orders are informed.

Article 23(4) requires Member States to ensure that hosting service providers, other relevant intermediary service providers and content providers affected by an order have a right to an effective judicial remedy, including the right to challenge the order before the courts of the Member State of the competent authority that issued it.

Article 23(5) requires Member States to ensure that the relevant content providers affected by an order are informed, where appropriate by the hosting service providers or by any other relevant intermediary service providers concerned, of the reasons for the removal or disabling of access and of the possibility to have access to judicial redress.