The European Council approved this Saturday (23) the DSA (Digital Services Act), a law that determines that Big Techs (such as Meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, among others) fight illegal content online to make browsing safer for users over the Internet. Internet.
If they do not comply with the new rules, which come into effect in 2024, companies can be fined up to 6% of global revenue. For companies with a market value in the trillions of dollars, such as Amazon, this could represent penalties in the region of $6 billion.
The legislation has the following principle: what is illegal offline must also be illegal online.
The set of rules includes, for example, rules about data that can be used for advertising, stipulations on how networks should facilitate the notification of illegal content or products (in the case of retailers) and even the prohibition of deceptive interface patterns, known as dark patterns (the dirty design tricks used by services to get people to accept hidden conditions).
Some of the DSA rules:
Advertising targeting children or based on sensitive data such as religion, gender, race and political opinions is prohibited; Social media platforms must provide easy ways to flag illegal content; Companies must monitor and reduce the risk of manipulating services that impact in the democratic process and public safety;Marketplace companies [que permitem que terceiros comercializem seus produtos dentro de suas plataformas, como a Amazon] must have systems for reporting suspicious products, such as fake sneakers or unsafe toys; European bloc governments may request the removal of illegal content, such as those promoting child pornography, terrorism, hate speech and commercial scams; of their algorithms to regulators and researchers; Big platforms will have to make the workings of their algorithms clearer. The legislation says, for example, that users must have a non-profiling-based recommendation option; Big Techs will have to report how they are dealing with the spread of disinformation — including in special situations, such as Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
“Platforms should be transparent about their content moderation decisions, prevent misinformation from going viral and prevent unsafe products from being offered on marketplaces,” said Margrethe Vestager, European Commission vice president responsible for the new digital policy, in a statement. “With today’s agreement, we ensure that platforms are held accountable for the risks of their services that may pose some kind of risk to society and citizens.”
The DSA (Digital Services Act) is one of the actions taken by the European Commission to try to regulate the market dominated by Big Techs, such as Meta (the company that owns Facebook and Instagram), Google, Amazon, Twitter and Microsoft.
At the end of April, the same European Commission approved the Digital Markets Act, with obligations and prohibitions to prevent anti-competitive practices by Big Techs.
Traditionally, the European Union ends up influencing policies related to internet regulation around the world. This was the case with the Brazilian LGPD (General Data Protection Law), inspired by the European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). The United States and Canada are considering legislation similar to the one passed this Saturday by the European Commission.
*With information from the Guardian
