"The EU must uphold hard-won protections for digital human rights", November 2025

We 127 civil society organisations, trade unions and defenders of the public interest write to emphasise our serious alarm at the forthcoming EU Digital Omnibus proposals, part of a wide deregulation agenda. What is being presented as a “technical streamlining” of EU digital laws is, in reality, an attempt to covertly dismantle Europe's strongest protections against digital threats. These are the protections that keep everyone’s data safe, governments accountable, protect people from having artificial intelligence (AI) systems decide their life opportunities, and ultimately keep our societies free from unchecked surveillance.

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By recasting vital laws like the GDPR, ePrivacy, AI Act, DSA, DMA, Open Internet Regulation (DNA), Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and other crucial laws as “red tape”, the EU is giving in to powerful corporate and state actors who oppose the principles of a fair, safe and democratic digital landscape and who want to lower the bar of EU laws for their own benefit. We therefore urge the European Commission to:

1. Immediately halt any attempts to reopen the GDPR, ePrivacy framework, AI Act or other core digital rights protections;

2. Reaffirm the EU's commitment to rights-based digital governance, including strong enforcement of existing protections; and

3. Uphold institutional accountability, enable meaningful civil society and impacted community engagement, and preserve the integrity of the EU’s democratic process.

It is not too late for the European Commission to change course to defend, not dismantle, the laws that protect us all.