2023-08-25 03:45:09
An activist from environmental NGO Avaaz wearing a mask depicting Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds a banner reading ‘Regulate me’ during an action marking the release of the Digital Services Act, outside the building of the European Commission, in Brussels, on December 15, 2020. KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
In theory, the Digital Services Act (DSA) entered into force in the fall of 2022, but its first concrete effects were to be felt from Friday August 25. It is indeed since midnight that the nineteen largest social networks, market places and other Internet search engines (1) must comply with this European legislation on digital services obliging them to better regulate their content. For months, most of these Internet giants have been preparing to meet the requirements of the European regulator. The American Amazon and the German Zalando, also concerned by the regulations, challenged in court their presence in the list drawn up by the European executive.
Read the editorial: Regulation of the Web: Europe at the forefront
“Other major platforms to meet these obligations will be designated soon”, we promise the European Commission. As for the smaller platforms, they will comply with the same rules from February 2024. But the latter will not be supervised by Brussels, but by the competent national authorities.
“Europe is now the first jurisdiction in the world where online platforms no longer get a ‘free pass’ and set their own rules. They are now regulated entities in the same way as financial institutions”, assures Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market who was in charge of this legislation. The idea, as he has repeated over and over once more for several years, is that “what is forbidden in the real world is also forbidden in the virtual world”.
“Clear guarantees”
“It’s a major cultural change since before, these platforms were more in a deregulated world”, comments Alexandre de Streel, academic co-director of the Center for Regulation in Europe and professor of European law at the University of Namur (Belgium). After Europe, other continents might take measures inspired by the DSA, in the United States, in Asia and in Oceania.
“Rather than relying on the goodwill of platforms or on an astute interpretation of the law, the EU has chosen to organize and restore trust and security in the digital space with rights, obligations and clear guarantees”, insists Thierry Breton.
Read the forum: Article reserved for our subscribers Geoffroy Didier: “The Digital Services Act will not threaten freedom of expression, it will protect it”
Concretely, from August 25, all the platforms designated in April by the Commission – they each bring together at least 45 million users, i.e. 10% of the European population – must take nearly forty measures . Legislation requires them, for example, to make understandable – even for a child – the famous “terms and conditions of use” that everyone validates, or to have a legal entity on European territory, as well as easily identifiable contact points. .
You have 63.26% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
1692939243
#European #law #obliging #Internet #giants #regulate #content #entered #force
