EU lawmakers warn Frontex social-media surveillance mandate threatens free speech

European lawmakers and civil society groups are challenging a broad social-media surveillance power included in the European Commission's proposed overhaul of Frontex, the EU's coast and border patrol agency, warning it crosses into policing lawful online speech.

The Commission's proposal, published Tuesday, would give Frontex an explicit mandate to monitor social media for content that aids or encourages illegal border crossings into the EU. Under the plan, the agency would set up an internal structure to scan platforms and report content it deems to be facilitating illegal entry.

Social democratic Italian MEP Brando Benifei told POLITICO it was "legitimate" to remove online advertisements for human smuggling, but said a broad mandate went far further, placing "online speech under a border agency's watch." He noted that a similar 2019 monitoring tender was revoked after privacy criticism, adding that the Commission now appeared to be copying surveillance tactics used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Frontex would seek trusted-flagger status under the Digital Services Act — the EU's law regulating digital platforms — which grants priority handling to content flagged to social media companies. That application would require review by a national authority. EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen clarified that the Commission's initial communication that Frontex "will be acting" as such an entity meant only that the agency would apply for the status.

Jan Penfrat, senior policy advisor at civil society group EDRi, said the DSA's trusted-flagger programme "was never conceived for police forces" to have the ability to circumvent due process when assessing the legality of people's online expression, according to EDRi.

The Commission is also seeking to double Frontex's budget for the next seven years and to expand its powers to deport people.