The European Parliament has adopted the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), regulating tech giants in the areas of privacy, algorithms and competition.
Digital services: Parliament has adopted landmark rules to create a safer, open online environment. Press release: https://t.co/LW4xOB8dcx pic.twitter.com/NwHkG2eL3o
— European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) July 5, 2022
The Digital Services Act focuses on the activities of online platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and Google. They will be obliged to combat harmful content and the sale of illegal or unsafe goods.
Users will also be able to learn how and why a recommendation system showed them certain content, and challenge any decision made by algorithmic moderators.
Companies will not be able to use confidential data to target advertising, display it to children, or use “dark patterns” in the interfaces of websites and apps.
Most obligations will apply to large platforms with a monthly audience of at least 45 million users. They may be subjected to independent audits and be required to give authorities and approved researchers access to their algorithms to study potential harm.
The Digital Markets Act is designed to ensure fair competition between large platforms such as Google, Microsoft and Apple and smaller ones. The DMA provides for better interoperability with smaller services that enable file sharing between systems.
Tech giants will also be prevented from promoting their products and services on their own platforms at the expense of third-party offerings, and from complicating the process of removing pre-installed apps.
The DMA will enter into force six months after publication. The DSA will take effect on 1 January 2024.
Fines of up to 10% of annual turnover, rising to 20% for repeated breaches.
In April, the EU reached an agreement on the adoption of the Digital Services Act.
In May, Elon Musk, who announced the purchase of Twitter, supported the EU’s initiative to regulate social networks.
In June, the EU updated the rules to combat disinformation and deepfakes online.
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