in the European Union were recognized as “reliable reporters” – mostly third-sector organizations, and some state agencies. According to the Respondents, this arrangement constitutes a framework for the activity of European states on the voluntary track, although some of them have specific, internal arrangements. The Respondents also noted the existence of coercive arrangements in some European states, which do not refer to the possibility of voluntary action even though it takes place, such as the activity of the Swiss Federal Office of Police, for example (in Belgium, there is a governmental agency whose authorities are defined in a cooperation agreement between the federal government and the districts and communities. This agreement grants the governmental agency general authority “to take legal action”). As opposed to this, it was noted that the law enforcement agency of the European Union, Europol, acts on the voluntary level by virtue of express authorization in reg. 4(1)(m) of Europol Regulation 2016/794. In France, the Central Office for the Fight against Crime linked to Information Technology and Communication (OCLCTIC) is authorized by sec. 1 of an order pursuant to the counter-terrorism law (loi n° 2004-575 du 21 juin 2004, amended in 2014) to request that search engines or hosting service providers remove content that amounts to certain criminal offenses, such as encouraging terror or pedophilia, without need for a judicial order. 27. At this point we should note that, prior to the hearing, requests to join the proceedings were filed by Lori Shem Tov and the Movement for Freedom of Information (hereinafter: the Movement), as noted in the heading. The request of the Movement (which sought to join as an amicus curiae) is primarily based upon the argument that the question of authority at the focus of the petition should also be examined in light of the fact that, according to the Movement, the Cyber Department operates without transparency, and this is expressed by a lack of documentation of the content of the publications that the Cyber Department seeks to remove (according to the Movement, this can be inferred from the reply it received to its freedom of information request of Nov. 1, 2019). It is argued that this, inter alia, raises a fear that the Respondents’ referrals are “slanted and tainted by discrimination”, or arise, in part, from imprecise translation of the publications concerned. In addition, it is argued that there is a lack of clear guidelines for structuring the Cyber Department’s