End of the countdown. The web giants have been subject since Friday in the European Union (EU) to reinforced obligations of transparency and the fight against illegal content, under penalty of heavy fines, under new legislation without equivalent in the world.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) now applies to the 19 largest social networks, marketplaces and search engines, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, X (ex- Twitter) or TikTok.
These companies, which each have more than 45 million active users in the EU, are subject to new obligations to combat disinformation, online hate, child pornography and counterfeiting, under the supervision of the European Commission.
“This August 25 marks a major turning point. Internet users, from now on, will benefit from reinforced protection, but also from increased control and choice”, wrote on X the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, assuring that the DSA was also “there to protect the freedom of ‘expression against arbitrary decisions’.
“My departments and I will be very, very rigorous in verifying that platforms comply with the DSA,” he promised.
It is about “protecting our children, our societies, our democracies”, noted for her part the president of the European executive, Ursula von der Leyen.
Violators face fines of up to 6% of their group’s worldwide turnover and, as a last resort, in the event of repeated serious breaches, a temporary ban from practicing in the EU.
Merchant sites must be able to trace sellers, to reduce fraud.
Their algorithms are under scrutiny: platforms must explain how their recommender systems work and offer options without personalization.
On the advertising side, the DSA prohibits targeting minors or publishing ads based on sensitive data (religion, sexual orientation, etc.).
Several giants have already announced changes to comply with this legislation.
Compliance with the rules by the social network X is particularly scrutinized, due to the controversial transformations and the massive layoffs operated by its boss, Elon Musk.
Twitter is one of five platforms that passed a stress test this summer to see if they were ready to meet DSA requirements. Thierry Breton had notably warned Elon Musk that he had to strengthen his means to achieve this.
The billionaire, however, assured Friday that his social network was “working hard” to comply with the new legislation.
Microsoft has also, like other platforms, set up an “ads library” to inform users about ads served by its services and ad targeting. The group has also committed to greater transparency in the operation of its Bing search engine and content moderation.
About a hundred people within the European executive are responsible for monitoring the application of the DSA.
E-commerce sites Amazon and Zalando, which are among the 19 “very large platforms” subject to the new rules, have meanwhile filed appeals in European justice to challenge them, considering that they do not meet the criteria to do so. be subject.
However, the rules also apply to them pending the court ruling, with the exception of a DSA provision on advertising transparency for Amazon, the Commission is told.
The DSA, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of 2016, could become a reference in the world, as many governments strive to regulate the excesses of the web.
It complements another regulation, on digital markets (DMA), which tackles anti-competitive practices by tech giants. The companies affected by this legislation will be officially designated on September 6 and will have six months to comply with their obligations.