European Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager.
Anatolian Agency Anatolian Agency Getty Images
The European Union agreed on new digital regulations on Saturday that would force technology giants such as Google and Meta to control the illegal content of their platforms more aggressively, or risk potential fines of billions of dollars.
The European Parliament and EU Member States have reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act, an important piece of legislation aimed at tackling illegal and harmful content, prompting platforms to remove it quickly.
A key piece of legislation will limit the way digital giants target consumers with online advertising. DSA will effectively stop platforms from targeting users with algorithms that use data based on their gender, race, or religion. Targeting children with ads will also be prohibited.
So-called dark models – deceptive tactics designed to push people to certain products and services – will also be banned.
Technology companies will have to implement new procedures designed to eliminate illegal materials such as hate speech, incitement to terrorism and sexual abuse of children. E-commerce markets such as Amazon must also prevent the sale of illegal goods under the new rules.
Failure to comply with the rules could result in fines of up to 6% of global companies’ annual revenues. For a company like Meta, the parent company of Facebook, this could mean a fine of up to $ 7 billion based on 2021 sales figures.
The DSA is separate from the Digital Markets Act, which was approved by the EU institutions last month. Both come with the threat of hefty fines. But while the DMA seeks to limit the market power of large technology companies, the DSA seeks to ensure that platforms quickly get rid of toxic content.
The law will affect sites with user-generated content, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
Brussels has a long history of making internet giants work for abuses of competition and data confidentiality.
The bloc has imposed a total of 8.2 billion euros ($ 8.8 billion) in fines against Google for antitrust violations and is actively investigating Amazon, Apple and Meta.
In 2018, the EU introduced the General Data Protection Regulation, a broad set of privacy rules aimed at giving consumers more control over their information.
This comes as politicians in Washington quarrel over how to seize the power of big tech companies and get them to clean their platforms of harmful content. On Thursday, former President Barack Obama said the technology industry needed regulation to deal with the spread of online misinformation.
“For too long, technology platforms have fueled misinformation and extremism without responsibility,” former Democratic Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wrote on Twitter.
“I call on our transatlantic allies to push the Digital Services Act to the finish line and strengthen global democracy before it is too late.
But how the EU manages to put its new rules into practice is unclear. Critics say implementing such measures will create technical burdens and raise questions about what is or is not acceptable online.
In the UK, new laws designed to deal with unsafe content have been widely criticized by some in the technology industry – not least the Big Tech platforms – for vaguely describing material that is “legal but harmful”.
The unfortunate claim that this could severely restrict freedom of expression online. For its part, the British government has said it will not demand the abolition of any legal freedom of expression and that “democratically important” content will be protected.
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