Forthcoming Digital Omnibus would mark point of no return
127 civil society organisations and unions are urging the European Commission to halt its planned Digital Omnibus, warning that the proposals would weaken core EU laws like the GDPR and AI Act, and represent the biggest rollback of digital rights in EU history.
Brussels, 13 November 2025
A broad coalition of 127 civil society organisations, trade unions and public interest groups, including the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), has signed a joint open letter warning against the European Commission’s forthcoming Digital Omnibus proposals calling the EU to uphold hard-won protections for digital human rights.
Presented as a technical “simplification” of EU digital laws, the proposal is in fact part of a wider deregulation agenda that threatens to dismantle Europe’s strongest digital rights protections. These include the GDPR, ePrivacy rules, the AI Act, the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Open Internet Regulation – the very framework that keeps people’s data safe, ensures accountability, prevents discrimination by AI systems, and protects citizens from mass surveillance.
If adopted, the Digital Omnibus could:
- Weaken ePrivacy safeguards, allowing continuous tracking of individuals through phones, cars and smart devices.
- Undermine the AI Act, enabling companies to secretly exempt risky systems from oversight.
- Hollow out the GDPR, giving corporations more freedom to misuse personal data and evade accountability.
- Shift power away from people, concentrating it in the hands of large tech firms and state actors.
This would represent the biggest rollback of digital rights in EU history, pushed through via rushed and opaque processes that bypass democratic scrutiny.
Thus, we urge the European Commission to:
- Halt any attempts to reopen or weaken core digital rights protections.
- Reaffirm the EU’s commitment to rights-based digital governance.
- Ensure transparency, accountability and meaningful engagement with civil society and affected communities.
As the European Network Against Racism, we join this call to stress that digital deregulation will further entrench racial inequalities online. Biased AI systems, inadequate moderation and limited understanding of racism already allow hate speech to spread rapidly in digital spaces. Weakening existing safeguards will deepen these injustices and further restrict the digital rights of racialised communities.
Read the full open letter below ⬇️
The-EU-must-uphold-hard-won-protections-for-digital-human-rights
