After badly offending decent critics of its controversial proposal for an EU Copyright Directive by labeling them as a "mob" in the headline of an official Medium post (The Copyright Directive: How the mob was told to save the dragon and slay the knight), the European Commission must finally show a sincere commitment to civil discourse and issue an apology. The people so offended (including, among others, many law professors) committed nothing (such as acts of violence) that would have justified the terminology the EU's primary executive government agency hurled at dissidents.

The insulting headline was online for several days, then got removed (on Saturday, February 16) in response to complaints (mostly communicated via Twitter). As explained here ("European Commission removes offensive blog post that called critics of copyright bill a 'mob'"), the action taken so far is dishonest and deficient, which is why nothing short of a sincere apology can be accepted under the circumstances:

• While the article per se has been taken down, the URL (https://medium.com/@EuropeanCommission/the-copyright-directive-how-the-mob-was-told-to-save-the-dragon-and-slay-the-knight-b35876008f16) still contains the headline that sparked outrage in the first place.
• By claiming that readers of the post failed to get the message, though there is only one reasonable and plausible way to understand the aforementioned headline, the EU Commission tries to shift the blame. One might even call this victim blaming.

It was a good idea to remove the content of the Commission's Medium post, which was condescending, paternalistic, and envious of Silicon Valley. But the removal of the body (not the URL) of the post falls short of what is needed when a government agency steps over the line. In the absence of rectification, the Commission's apparent disrespect for dissidents lawfully exercising their democratic rights

• will be grist to the mills of EU skeptics in a critical election year, and
• will unnecessarily complicate constructive efforts to arrive at a more balanced result than the rumored outcome of recent backroom negotiations ("trilogue") on the proposed Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.