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Flags in front of the European Parliament building: The EU states want to contain corporations with common rules
Photo: Thomas Banneyer / picture alliance/dpa
Previously, the Digital Services Act (DSA) only applied to particularly large platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and various Google services. This Saturday, however, the European regulations for digital platforms will also come into force for smaller companies. Online companies
must then, among other things, take measures to combat illegal content, goods and services, offer users improved complaint options and be accountable for the moderation of content.
For the particularly large online platforms, which have been subject to the new rules since the end of August, regulators are particularly focusing on combating misinformation and hate speech. In the context of the war between Israel and Hamas, the EU Commission opened proceedings under the DSA against Platform X, formerly Twitter, in December. In January, the Commission issued warnings against 17 other online services, including Facebook and Google.
Personalized advertising limited
From now on, smaller platforms that employ at least 50 employees or generate a turnover of 10 million euros are now also covered by the DSA - for example trading platforms such as Ebay, Classifieds and Vinted. Among other things, they must disclose which personal data they use to display advertising. Particularly sensitive data, such as sexual orientation, political attitudes and religious affiliation, may not be used for targeted advertising. Personalized ads targeting minors are completely prohibited.
Another focus is measures against depictions of sexual violence and so-called child pornography. According to the law, porn sites must delete such “illegal content” more quickly. The platforms must also remove videos from their pages that were uploaded against the will of the people depicted. They should also take action against AI-generated deepfakes, in which a face is subsequently inserted into a video. The companies should also prevent minors from having access to pornographic content and introduce mandatory age restrictions.
If the new rules are violated, companies face fines running into the billions. The law provides for payments of up to six percent of global sales. For the online giant Amazon, based on last year's sales, that would be more than 28 billion euros. As a last resort, the EU Commission can also block an online service under the new law.
Replacement for German special rules
To enforce the rules, Member States must each designate authorities to monitor and enforce the DSA. Although the relevant law is not yet in force in Germany, a representative of the European Commission assured on Friday that "no chair will be left empty" at the first official meeting of the supervisory authorities next Monday. In Germany, the Federal Network Agency is intended to be the main regulator; the Bundestag is expected to pass the necessary law in May.
The EU Commission celebrates the new rules as a milestone, but there are doubts in civil society about their implementation. The organization HateAid, for example, recognizes improvements made by the DSA, such as uniform reporting mechanisms across major social media platforms. However, in some points the European regulation falls short of the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) that was previously valid in Germany.
The DSA is the first step in a series of new regulations from the European Union for the digital space. In March, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) comes into force, which is intended to limit the market power of large Internet companies. The AI Act, which is intended to be the first law to comprehensively regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI), is currently still in progress.
tmk/dpa