It's a wrap! We Have The Agreement on the Digital Services Act

Europe continues to set the pace, and de facto international standards, for common-sense regulation of digital technologies. The landmark rules that the DSA brings in will effectively tackle the spread of illegal content online and protect people’s fundamental rights in the digital sphere.

The Europen Commission’s mantra for the DSA has always been that the goal is to ensure that what’s illegal offline will be illegal online. And in a video message tweeted out in the small hours local time, a tired but happy looking EVP, Margrethe Vestager, said it’s “not a slogan anymore that’s what illegal offline should also be seen and dealt with online”.

Citizens will have better control over how their data are used by online platforms and big tech companies. The European Parliament has achieved a lot of good things on algorithmic transparency and disinformation, and it is hard not to see the gap between the US and the EU in comprehensive digital lawmaking as a growing gap.

Democracy roars back to life in the fight for a democratic digital future. The digital must live in democracy’s house. - Shoshana Zuboff

The key piece of legislation aims to hold large tech multinationals accountable for what is published on their platforms. It primarily targets those collectively known as GAFAM — Google, Apple, Facebook (now Meta), Amazon and Microsoft — although it would also likely impact a handful of other groups such as social network TikTok. It is expected to force platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to moderate the content they host, either in the field of e-commerce or disinformation.

Together with the European Parliament & Council, the Commission has worked in record time to protect EU citizens online.

Thierry Breton, the Commissioner for the Internal Market has detailed in a series of tweets the 10 things you need to know about the DSA:

1. With great power comes great responsibility ?? The DSA is setting clear, harmonized obligations for platforms – proportionate to size, impact & risk.

2. A harmonized system to fight all forms of illegal content – from counterfeit or dangerous products to hate speech ???? Any national authority will be able to request that illegal content is removed, regardless of where the platform is established in the EU.

3. Protecting fundamental rights, including media pluralism in content moderation ?? Users will be empowered to choose how they receive recommendations & content. User accounts can only be suspended on the basis of precise rules and applied in a predictable way.

4. No more “I’m just the middleman” excuse! ??♂? More protection for consumers on marketplaces: a. New Class Action possibility for DSA violations; b. The obligation of a contact point in Europe; c. More transparency about the products sold; d. Know your business customer.

5. You can (finally!) speak your own language ?? Platforms will need to have adequate resources for content moderation: the number of moderators, specific language skills, etc. Users will have the right to #complain in their own language.

6. Ban on targeted advertising for children ?? More protection against targeted advertising aimed at children — or based on sensitive data.

7. Opening the “black box” of platform algorithms ?? From now on, platforms will have a transparency obligation of their recommendation systems. For instance, they must reveal whether they use "filters" or automatic algorithms for content moderation.

8. Terms and conditions that everyone can understand ???? From now on, the terms of use of the platforms will have to be clear, accessible, and comprehensible. Gone are the 50 pages in small print and which can be found only at the end of a long series of clicks!

9. Possible direct #supervision by the Commission of very large platforms ?? The Commission will have specialized teams and will hire experts in data, algorithms, and business models.

10. A possible mechanism of emergency response in the event of a crisis?? We cannot rely solely on platforms’ goodwill when facing crises, pandemics or wars. Europe needs a legal tool to require large digital players to react quickly in case of an emergency.

!!! And last but not least: sanctions ?? The DSA imposes effective and dissuasive sanctions. From fines for breaches of obligations of up to 6% of global turnover… to a ban on operating in the EU single market in case of repeated serious breaches.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine conflict garnered enormous attention during the recent debate over information warfare, regulators will in the future ensure that large digital companies better control algorithms that might promote extreme or unsafe content. With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are “too big to care” is coming to an end. Hillary Clinton, the former US Secretary of State and presidential candidate, praised the EU for its work on the DSA.

The Digital Services Act is a “global golden standard” for better online rights for citizens and democratic control over algorithms.