EU
lawmakers slam new border force powers to surveil social media
The EU
border agency is getting a broad mandate to monitor social media for illegal
content.
A French
member of European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex patrol works at the
cross-Channel terminal in Calais, northern France on July 25, 2024. | Bernard
Barron/AFP via Getty Images
October 28,
2026 9:24 pm CET
BRUSSELS —
New powers proposed for the EU's border police Frontex to monitor social media
pose a threat to free speech, European lawmakers and civil society groups have
told POLITICO.
The EU
Commission's proposal Tuesday for a major revamp of the coast and border patrol
agency included a broad and explicit mandate to monitor social media for
information that aids or encourages illegal border crossings into the European
Union.
Social
democratic Italian lawmaker Brando Benifei told POLITICO it was
"legitimate" for authorities to remove online advertisements for
human smuggling: "But a broad social media surveillance mandate goes much
further, placing online speech under a border agency’s watch.”
After a 2019
monitoring tender with similar powers was revoked over criticism about privacy violations, Benifei
said "the Commission now proposes copying ICE’s invasive online tracking,”
referencing the much-criticized surveillance tactics of the U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agency.
Under the EU
proposal, Frontex would set up an internal structure to monitor social media
and report to the platform in question the content it says is facilitating
illegal entry to EU countries. This comes as the Commission is seeking to
double the agency's budget for the next seven years and vastly expand its
powers to deport people.
The EU
already has several structures that facilitate the exchange of information
between civil society, social media platforms and authorities when it comes to
disinformation campaigns or illegal content. These include a rapid response
system on disinformation campaigns under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the
EU's landmark law regulating digital platforms, as well as a recently
established democratic resilience center.
Policing
content
Brussels
must tread a careful balance not to police individual pieces of content,
especially given criticism from civil society activists that it is trying to
become the arbiter of truth online. The legality of content is set by
countries, which assign their authorities or civil society to monitor the
platforms for problematic postings to be flagged to the platforms to be taken
down.
Frontex
would apply for trusted flagger status under the DSA, which gives priority to
the content it flags to social media platforms. Entities that apply for this
status have to demonstrate expertise and independence to a national authority,
which grants them special status.
“The DSA’s
trusted flagger program was never conceived for police forces to circumvent due
process when assessing the legality of people’s online expression,” said Jan
Penfrat, senior policy advisor at civil society group EDRi.
The
Commission's initial communication suggested Frontex "will be acting"
as such an entity, which EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen later clarified meant
they would apply for it. That application would have to be reviewed by a
national authority to check Frontex's independence and expertise in that area.
Polish
right-wing MEP Piotr Müller told POLITICO that the "mandate must be
precise" in focusing on criminal networks. “Frontex should go after
smugglers and human traffickers, not police opinions about migration.” Müller
is among those that criticize the DSA as policing free speech online.
Executive
Vice President Virkkunen announced the news at a meeting Tuesday of signatories
of the DSA’s code of conduct on disinformation, some of whom are trusted
flaggers. Questions around the implications of the measures for freedom of
speech and assembly came up in the closed-door meeting. According to two
attendees, Renate Nikolay, deputy director general of DG CONNECT, the
Commission's tech department, tried to assuage the free-speech concerns.
Other
lawmakers took a positive, yet reserved, stance towards the changes in
Frontex's mandate. The EU's migration authorities "need the tools to
respond to the changing threats at Europe’s borders, including smugglers using
social media to spread lies and promote dangerous crossings," which can
include "better monitoring and information-sharing," Regina Doherty,
a center-right MEP from Ireland told POLITICO.
But
"the priority now is to get the detail right so authorities can act
quickly within a clear legal framework, and platforms take responsibility for
illegal content," she pointed out.
German
center-right MEP Andreas Schwab said that “social media clearly is becoming
more and more a concern, but we should not have too many tools – let’s make use
of the DSA.”
Another MEP
who knows the agency well was more blunt. Fabrice Leggeri, a former director of
Frontex who hails from the far-right French National Rally party, said that the
new powers amounted to an “attempt to censor freedom of speech in Europe” by
Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.
Commission
spokesperson Guillaume Mercier told POLITICO that the Global Alliance Rapid
Response Initiatives (GARRI) began in March "to provide rapid,
context-specific communication support to respond to mis- and disinformation on
migration, helping to undermine smugglers' deceptive narratives," Mercier
said. "Such monitoring should be limited in purpose and scope to help
identify online activities relevant for the management of external borders and
migration to the EU."
Asked
whether the new center would monitor and flag posts outside the EU, where most
of the information about crossing the borders circulates, Mercier repeated that
"monitoring would help identify online activities relevant for the
management of external borders and migration to the EU" to inform the EU
response.
Max
Griera contributed to this report. This article has been updated to include a
response from the Commission.
CORRECTION:
This article was updated on Oct. 29 to correct the nationality of MEP Andreas
Schwab. He is German.
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