EU agrees deal to tame internet ‘Wild West’

BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) on Saturday finalised new legislation to require Big Tech to remove harmful content, the bloc’s latest move to rein in the world’s online giants.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) – the second part of a massive project to regulate tech companies – aims to ensure tougher consequences for platforms and websites that host a long list of banned content, from hate speech to disinformation and child sexual abuse images.

EU officials and parliamentarians finally reached agreement at talks in Brussels early Saturday on the legislation, which has been in the works since 2020.

“Today’s agreement on DSA is historic,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.

“Our new rules will protect users online, ensure freedom of expression and opportunities for businesses. What is illegal offline will effectively be illegal online in the EU.”

“Yes, we have a deal!” European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton tweeted.

“With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ is coming to an end. A major milestone for EU citizens,” said Breton, who has previously described the internet as the “Wild West”.

The EU’s provisional agreement reached on Saturday remains subject to formal approval by the 27 member states and the European Parliament.

The regulation is the companion to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which targeted anti-competitive practices among tech behemoths such as Google and Facebook and was concluded in late March.

The legislation had faced lobbying from the tech companies and intense debate over the extent of freedom of speech.

Tech giants have been repeatedly called out for failing to police their platforms – a 2019 New Zealand terror attack live-streamed on Facebook caused global outrage, and the chaotic insurrection in the US last year was promoted online.

The dark side of the internet also includes e-commerce platforms filled with counterfeit or defective products.

For its part, the large digital business lobby CCIA said on Saturday that “a number of important details” need to be “clarified” so “the final legislation allows all businesses, large and small, to comply with the rules in practice”.

The regulation will require platforms to swiftly remove illegal content as soon as they are aware of its existence. Social networks would have to suspend users who frequently breach the law.

The DSA will force e-commerce sites to verify the identity of suppliers before proposing their products.

While many of the DSA’s stipulations cover all companies, it lays out special obligations for “very large platforms”, defined as those with more than 45 million active users in the EU.

While the list of companies has not yet been released it will include giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, as well as Twitter and probably the likes of TikTok, Zalando and Booking.com.

These players will be obliged to assess the risks associated with the use of their services and remove illegal content. They will also be required to be more transparent about their data and algorithms.

The initiative is “a world first in the field of digital regulation”, the European Council, which represents the 27 member states, said in a statement.

“The DSA follows the principle that what is illegal offline must also be illegal online. It aims to protect the digital space against the spread of illegal content, and to ensure the protection of users’ fundamental rights,” the statement added.