EU unveils landmark law to force Big Tech to combat illegal content
- The Digital Services Act will require platforms to swiftly remove harmful content as soon as they are aware of its existence
- A top EU official said the ‘time of big online platforms behaving like they are too big to care is coming to an end’
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The Digital Services Act (DSA) – the second part of a massive project to regulate tech companies – aims to ensure tougher consequences for platforms and websites that host a long list of banned content ranging from hate speech to disinformation and child sexual abuse images.
EU officials and parliamentarians finally reached agreement at talks in Brussels on the legislation, which has been in the works since 2020.
“Yes, we have a deal!,” European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton tweeted.
“With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ is coming to an end. A major milestone for EU citizens,” said Breton, who has previously described the internet as the “Wild West”.
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“Today’s agreement on DSA is historic,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.
“Our new rules will protect users online, ensure freedom of expression and opportunities for businesses. What is illegal offline will effectively be illegal online in the EU.”
The regulation is the companion to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which targeted anticompetitive practices among tech behemoths such as Google and Facebook and was concluded in late March.
The legislation had faced lobbying from the tech companies and intense debate over the extent of freedom of speech.
The dark side of the internet also includes e-commerce platforms filled with counterfeit or defective products.
The regulation will require platforms to swiftly remove illegal content as soon as they are aware of its existence. Social networks would have to suspend users who frequently breach the law.
The DSA will force e-commerce sites to verify the identity of suppliers before proposing their products.
While many of the DSA’s stipulations cover all companies, it lays out special obligations for “very large platforms”, defined as those with more than 45 million active users in the EU.
The list of companies has not yet been released but will include giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, as well as Twitter and probably the likes of TikTok, Zalando and Booking.com.
These players will be obliged to assess the risks associated with the use of their services and remove illegal content.
They will also be required to be more transparent about their data and algorithms.
The European Commission will oversee yearly audits and be able to impose fines of up to six per cent of their annual sales for repeated infringements.
Among the practices expected to be outlawed is the use of data on religion or political views for targeted advertising.
She hailed in November the “enormous potential” of the European regulation project, which could become a “reference” for other countries, including the United States.
However, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) fears the text does not go far enough.
It wants a ban on all advertising based on the surveillance of internet users, and random checks on online vendors’ products.
