Dutch municipalities will only receive clarity about online tracking of citizens later this year. Those rules should actually already be in place, but the Minister of Justice says that more time is needed to take into account the new wishes of municipalities regarding monitoring.
Minister Dilan Yesilgöz-Jongerius writes that in an answer to parliamentary questions, which, by the way, was already published in December of were answered last year but are only now online. D66 had asked questions about the monitoring of Dutch citizens by municipalities. For example, a growing number of municipalities are including ‘online prohibitions’ in general local ordinances. There is a lot of uncertainty about this, including among the minister, because it is sometimes unclear what municipalities may and may not prohibit online and where the role of mayors begins and ends. Municipalities are also collecting more and more data about citizens, for example to monitor public order.
As early as 2021, questions were asked about this to the then Minister of the Interior. In addition to the House of Representatives, the Association of Dutch Municipalities also denounced that there were no clear rules for online monitoring of citizens. The then minister Kajsa Ollongren then said that work was being done on those rules, which would not only clarify municipalities, but would also provide a legal basis for online monitoring.
That monitoring would be completed by the end of 2022 at the latest but that deadline was not met, minister Yesilgöz now writes. “The aim was to clarify the legal framework for social media monitoring by municipalities before the end of last year and to draw up a guide on this for municipalities in the context of public order and safety. Unfortunately, this did not work out,” she writes. .
According to the minister, this is because since then there has been a greater need for monitoring among municipalities. “The researchers have indicated that the original scope of the guide needs to be broadened, so that it will better match the needs of municipal practice,” the minister writes. Yesilgöz expects to be able to report more to the House of Representatives sometime in the first quarter, but it is not clear whether that means that new rules will be drawn up immediately or that this may take even longer.
