The Internet and Jobs: A giant opportunity for Europe. CEPS Policy Insights No 2017/38, 1 November 2017

For most of the past decade, Mr. Echikson has specialized in providing communications and policy support to technology companies and public authorities on Internet policy issues in Europe. He worked for six and a half years at Google, during which he worked on many of the search giant’s most difficult issues, ranging from the launch of the Chrome browser, the fight over Google Books and the battle over the Right to be Forgotten

Europe’s telecoms reform fails to fly. CEPS Commentary, 3 March 2017

Europe today enjoys a giant opportunity to step into a position of global internet leadership. While the new Trump Administration readies to pare back key digital policies, notably net neutrality, Europe is pressing forward with a new reform of its telecoms sector that aims to spread cheap, convenient and high-speed broadband access throughout the continent

Limited liability for the net? The Future of Europe’s E-Commerce Directive. CEPS Commentary, 13 April 2017

It has been one of the most successful pieces of European regulation. Back in 2000, just as the internet was going mainstream, Europe enacted the E-Commerce Directive, setting clear limits on liability for digital platforms. Platforms weren’t held responsible for illegal material uploaded to their sites. Instead, they were responsible only for bringing down illegal material when informed

To filter or not to filter - That is the question. CEPS Commentary, 13 September 2017

During the 2016 US presidential election, this headline spread rapidly through Facebook, provoking a wave of Tweets and YouTube videos. It looked true. Yet it was false. How should policymakers and social media platforms fight such “fake news”

Europe’s Surprising Economic Success Story. CEPS Commentary, 27 July 2018

Surprise, surprise: Which European country has chalked up the fastest economic growth for the past 25 years? Even surpassing Asian superstars? The answer is Poland

Europe’s Digital Verification Opportunity. CEPS Research Paper 17 JUN 2020.

Europe should move fast to allow the private sector to leverage its public digital verification system, especially in view of the changes to communication brought about by the Covid-19 crisis, concludes this new study. Identity verification remains a time-consuming, arduous process in Europe, often requiring paper documentation and a myriad of certificates guaranteeing credentials. Sometimes, a physical face to face meeting is also needed. This report shows how the EU has constructed a unique cross-border electronic identification infrastructure with digitally linked verification (eID) and interoperable electronic authentication (eIDAS). These advances make Europe the first and only region in the world where digital ID and verification are provided securely and in a legally enforceable manner. But Europe’s impressive digital verification system was mainly designed to ease citizen-government interactions. On average, citizens have only one or two interactions a year with their authorities. Private-sector use will therefore be key to it reaching its potential. Although reliance on digital verification raises understandable fears about increased government and corporate surveillance, the report argues that new technologies allow strong privacy protection while ensuring at-distance accuracy. To achieve this goal, Europe needs to fill in certain in GDPR data protection rules concerning digital verification, and encourage the adoption of privacy-protecting technologies such as blockchain

Privatising censorship. CEPS Commentary, 14 May 2018

There are many things policy-makers can do to fight fake news and propaganda, but they must be careful to ensure they don’t find themselves mimicking the behaviour of authoritarian states

What Europe needs to create more Spotifys. CEPS Commentary, 16 May 2018

Europe is home to many potential Larry Pages and Mark Zuckerbergs. It just needs to stop holding them back in a web of national regulations and let them fly

Competition in the Mobile Era. CEPS Commentary, 20 June 2017

In the personal computer era, it took a broadband connection and sophisticated technical skills to change operating systems or programmes. When Microsoft bundled software onto its dominant Windows, consumers found it almost impossible to avoid using its services. European trustbusters cracked down, first in 2004 and then in 2007, imposing billions in fines

President Macron can show digital light to Europe's laggards. CEPS Commentary, October 2017

Emmanuel Macron won the French presidency promising to embrace the digital world. Instead of warning about the internet as a threat to France’s traditional industries, Macron described it as a motor of renewed economic growth and promised to unleash a start-up revolution