Over the weekend, European policymakers reached a provisional political
agreement to adopt the Digital Services Act (DSA), first proposed in 2020, wh


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Tech & Terrorism: European Policymakers Reach Agreement On Regulating Big Tech

 

(New York, N.Y.) — Over the weekend, European policymakers reached
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a provisional political agreement to adopt the Digital Services Act (DSA),
first proposed in 2020, which aims to upgrade liability and safety rules for
digital platforms, services, and products. Although the updated DSA proposal
has yet to be published, it reportedly makes online platforms take certain
measures to protect users from illegal content. These measures include, among
others, strengthening transparency obligations—in particular forcing major
companies to provide information on its algorithms—and establishing a clearer
“notice and action” procedure to help encourage the swift removal of illegal
content. 

 

The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) contributed
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to the first round of consultations between policymakers, asking for the DSA
to, among other items, mandate clear, effective, and understandable
transparency policies and encourage proactive searches for illegal terrorist
and extremist content rather than relying on “notice and take down” mechanisms.

 

“While the final text of the DSA has not been published, initial reports have
indicated improvements on transparency requirements and ‘notice and action’
processes. This is a positive step that will allow users to be better informed
about how content is recommended to them and empower them to report illegal
content online. More importantly, companies can be fined up to 6 percent of its
global turnover for violations under the regulation—forcing the tech industry
to take these new rules seriously,” said CEP Executive Director David Ibsen.
“Nonetheless, CEP continues to advocate for more proactive measures to prevent
the spread of terrorist content.”

 

The new regulations must now be approved by the co-legislators, the European
Parliament, and the Council. Once formally adopted, the DSA will be applicable
across the EU and is expected to enter into force as early as 2024. However,
very large online platforms and very large online search engines will be
subject to the DSAfour months
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designation.

 

In May 2021, CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler and Senior Advisors
Alexander Ritzmann and Lucinda Creighton published apolicy paper
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detailing recommendations for the DSA. Among the challenges to be addressed,
the initial 2020 draft legislation did not consider the continued failure of
the existing “notice and action” moderation systems (Article 14) of major tech
platforms (or gatekeepers). Rather, the draft DSA perpetuates the “notice and
action” mechanism as the main content moderation system, expecting millions of
Internet users in the EU first to be exposed to illegal and possibly harmful
content and then to notify the platforms about it. This illustrates the
outsourcing of safety and security functions to users rather than a requirement
for platforms to proactively ensure the safety of their customers or prevent
harmful effects on the societies in which they conduct their commercial
activities.

 

Furthermore, according to the draft DSA, very large online platforms will have
to conduct internal risk assessments and are supposed to be audited. However,
the systems envisioned by the draft regulation to implement this process do not
take into account important lessons learned from large scale audit failures
experienced in other industries. Therefore, it seems that while the passing of
the DSA by the European Union is a significant first step—demonstrating that
Internet regulation within free and democratic societies is possible—continuous
improvements of the DSA will remain important in order to increase the
effectiveness of this crucial regulation.

 

To read CEP’s policy paper EU Commission Consultation: Digital Services Act
Package – Ex Ante Regulatory Instrument Of Very Large Online Platforms Acting
As Gatekeepers,please click here
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.

 

To read CEP’s policy paper The EU Digital Services Act (DSA): Recommendations
For An Effective Regulation Against Terrorist Content Online, please click here
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.

 

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