The EU has reached an agreement on yet another ambitious piece of legislation to monitor the internet.
After hours of deliberation, the bloc agreed on the general terms of the Digital Services Act, or DSA, which would require internet companies to take greater responsibility for information that appears on their platforms. New responsibilities include eliminating unlawful content and commodities more swiftly, clarifying how their algorithms work to consumers and researchers, and taking tighter action against disinformation propagated. Noncompliance can result in fines of up to 6% of a company’s yearly revenue.
In a statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, “The DSA will upgrade the ground rules for all online services in the EU.” “It puts into practice the concept that what is unlawful outside should also be illegal online.” The larger the platform’s size, the higher its responsibility.”
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s Competition Commissioner who has pioneered much of the EU’s internet regulation, stated that the act would “guarantee that platforms are held accountable for the risks their services potentially represent to society and consumers.”
The DSA should not be confused with the DMA, often known as the Digital Markets Act, which was passed in March. Both statutes have an impact on the tech industry, but the DMA is concerned with providing a level playing field amongst firms, whilst the DSA is concerned with how organizations police content on their platforms. As a result, the DSA will most likely have a more direct impact on internet users.
Although the legislation only applies to EU people, the impact will undoubtedly be felt in other parts of the world as well. Global technology businesses may conclude that it is more cost-effective to establish a unified content-policing policy and use the EU’s more tough restrictions as a model. While lawmakers in the United States are eager to reign in Big Tech with their own restrictions, they have already begun to look to the EU’s policies for guidance.
The DSA, like the DMA, will differentiate between different sizes of tech businesses, with greater requirements placed on larger companies. The largest companies, those with at least 45 million EU users, such as Meta and Google, will face the most scrutiny. These internet corporations have worked hard to weaken the DSA’s rules, notably those relating to targeted advertising and sharing data with independent researchers.
Although the EU member states have now agreed on the general outlines of the DSA, the legislative text must still be finished and the act legally approved into law. However, at this time, this final step is seen as a formality. The requirements will apply to all businesses 15 months after the act is passed into law, or on January 1, 2024, whichever comes first.
