Understanding the Digital Services Act

The Digital Services Act is a regulation designed to make tech giants more accountable for the content they host. This act aims to prevent the spread of misinformation and hate speech online.

The Digital Services Act will require large online platforms to be more proactive in removing harmful content. This includes taking down posts that promote violence, harassment, or hate speech within 24 hours.

Platforms will also have to be more transparent about their moderation practices and provide clear guidelines for users. This is a significant change from the current system, where platforms often rely on algorithms to decide what content to remove.

The Digital Services Act will also give users more control over their data and online experience.

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The Digital Services Act has some key provisions that are worth highlighting. The DSA protects consumers and their fundamental rights online by setting clear and proportionate rules.

One of the main goals is to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness. This is achieved by facilitating the scaling up of smaller platforms, SMEs, and start-ups.

The DSA also aims to rebalance the roles of users, platforms, and public authorities according to European values. This means placing citizens at the centre of the online environment.

By setting clear rules, the DSA promotes a fair and safe online space for everyone. This is crucial for building trust and confidence in the digital world.

The DSA's focus on smaller platforms and start-ups is particularly important. It's a chance for these businesses to grow and thrive in a more level playing field.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) has a broad scope, covering online intermediary services that millions of Europeans use every day. These services include online platforms, hosting services, and intermediary services offering network infrastructure.

The DSA's rules apply to all online intermediaries offering their services in the single market, regardless of whether they're established in the EU or outside. This means that online platforms, hosting services, and network infrastructure providers must comply with the new rules.

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The obligations for online intermediaries are proportionate to their size and impact in the online ecosystem. Very large online platforms and search engines pose particular risks, so specific rules apply to those reaching more than 10% of 450 million consumers in Europe.

Here's a breakdown of the types of online intermediaries covered by the DSA:

The European Commission has designated 19 online platforms as very large online platforms (VLOPs), which will be required to comply with the new rules starting 25 August 2023. These platforms have more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU as of 17 February 2023.

One of the designated platforms is TikTok, which is a popular social media platform used by millions of Europeans.

The list of designated platforms includes a mix of well-known companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google, as well as some lesser-known platforms like Alibaba AliExpress and X (formerly Twitter).

As of December 2023, 13 VLOPs have received a request for information (RFI), which is the procedure necessary to verify compliance with the DSA.

Some platforms, like Amazon and Zalando, have challenged their designations, claiming unequal treatment compared to other large retailers.

The European Commission has added three further platforms, all of them providing adult content, to the list of designated platforms on 20 December 2023.

Here is the list of designated VLOPs:

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a complex piece of legislation, and the European Commission has taken a thoughtful approach to gathering input and assessing its impact. A comprehensive impact assessment of the proposal was conducted, which is publicly available.

The DSA aims to regulate the content moderation practices of social media platforms, and the Commission has also conducted an impact assessment of the Digital Markets Act. These assessments provide valuable insights into the potential effects of the DSA on various stakeholders.

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The Commission has also engaged in public consultations to gather feedback from interested parties. A summary report on the open public consultation of the Digital Services Act Package is available, and the Commission has also conducted an open public consultation on the Digital Services Act Package.

The DSA's scope and application are significant, and the Commission has taken steps to ensure that its implementation is transparent and inclusive. A list of relevant impact assessments and public consultations is provided below:

These assessments and consultations demonstrate the Commission's commitment to creating a fair and transparent regulatory environment for digital services.

Companies that host others' data become liable when informed that this data is illegal, a rule known as "conditional liability exemption".

The Digital Services Act (DSA) applies to intermediary service providers that offer their services to users based in the European Union, regardless of their location.

The DSA introduces a wide-ranging set of new obligations on platforms, including transparency on how decisions to remove content are taken and on the way advertisers target users.

Some new obligations include mandatory "notice-and-action" requirements, respect for fundamental rights, and mandatory redress for content removal decisions.

A comprehensive risk management and audit framework is also required.

Companies that do not comply with the new obligations risk fines of up to 6% on their global annual turnover.

The Commission can also apply periodic penalties up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover for each day of delay in complying with remedies, interim measures, and commitments.

Here are the 19 online platforms that will be required to comply with the DSA starting August 25, 2023:

As of December 2023, 13 of these platforms have received a request for information (RFI) to verify compliance with the DSA.

Users have the right to contest moderation decisions by online platforms, including notices of illegal content that were rejected by the platform.

They can do this through the internal complaint-handling system of the platform, which must review decisions promptly.

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Users can also appeal to out-of-court dispute settlement bodies, such as the Appeals Centre Europe, which challenges decisions by social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Pinterest, Threads, and YouTube, with no charge to users.

There are certified dispute settlement bodies in the EU that users can select for their type of dispute, and request a review of a platform's content moderation decision.

The Digital Services Act aims to create a safer and more transparent online environment for users, but what legislative background led to its creation? The European Commission proposed the Digital Services Act in December 2020.

The Digital Services Act builds on the e-Commerce Directive, which was last updated in 2000, and the Digital Single Market strategy launched by the European Commission in 2015.

The e-Commerce Directive was an important step forward, but it was adopted before the rise of social media and online platforms, and it doesn't adequately address the challenges of today's digital landscape.

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The European Commission's Digital Single Market strategy aimed to create a single market for digital goods and services, but it didn't provide a clear framework for regulating online platforms.

The Digital Services Act is a response to the growing concerns about the spread of misinformation, hate speech, and other harmful content online, as well as the need for greater transparency and accountability from online platforms.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) has been criticized for enabling censorship, particularly through shadow banning practices imposed on major search engines like Google. This has raised concerns about the impact on political discourse and the suppression of dissenting voices.

Jessica Stegrud, a member of the Swedish Parliament, has argued that the DSA's focus on preventing the spread of disinformation and "harmful content" would undermine freedom of speech. The DSA has been described as a "comprehensive digital censorship law" that threatens the freedom of speech of American citizens.

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The DSA's later stage inter-institutional negotiations, or trilogues, have been criticized as lacking transparency and equitable participation. This mirrors past experiences with the drafting of the EU Regulation on Preventing the Dissemination of Terrorist Content Online and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The DSA includes some promising transparency measures, such as requiring online platforms to publish annual transparency reports on content restrictions, government requests for user data, and the use of automated moderation tools. This can highlight critical issues, like the ways disinformation or harassment spreads across platforms.

The European Commission has launched the DSA Transparency Database, which tracks when online platforms remove content. This database can be a tremendous asset for researchers and regulators to identify harms and propose strategies to combat them.

TikTok agreed to withdraw its TikTok Lite rewards feature after it was investigated under the DSA due to concerns about its "addictive effect", especially for children. A 2024 study of deleted Facebook and YouTube comments suggested that platforms may be over-removing content to avoid regulatory penalties under the DSA.

Here are some key features of the DSA's transparency measures:

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a complex law, but let's break it down in simple terms. The DSA applies to all intermediaries, including social media platforms, search engines, online marketplaces, and internet service providers, used by people in the EU.

These intermediaries are required to restrict content that violates their own terms of service or the laws of an EU member state. This is known as a notice-and-action regime. Regulators from each EU member state will help implement the law and appoint "trusted flaggers" to point out content that's illegal or violates intermediaries' terms of service.

Intermediaries with over 45 million monthly users in the EU are considered Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs). The European Commission has designated 17 platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube, as VLOPs.

VLOPs and VLOSEs must identify risks inherent to their platform's design, known as systemic risks. These risks include features that negatively impact civic discourse, electoral processes, and fundamental rights. Independent auditors will assess how well intermediaries are mitigating these risks.

If VLOPs and VLOSEs fail to comply with DSA requirements, they can be fined up to 6 percent of their annual global revenue.

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