European Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | beautiful pictures
The European Union agreed on new digital regulations on Saturday that will force tech giants like Google and Meta to more aggressively police illegal content on their platforms, or else it will. risk a multi-billion dollar fine.
The European Parliament and EU member states have reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act, a landmark law that aims to tackle illegal and harmful content by requiring platforms to quickly remove the content.
An important part of the law will limit how the digital giants target users with online advertisements. The DSA will effectively prevent platforms from targeting users with algorithms that use data based on their gender, race, or religion. Targeting children with ads will also be prohibited.
So-called dark patterns – deceptive tactics designed to push people towards certain products and services – will also be banned.
Tech companies will be required to implement new processes designed to take down illegal material such as hate speech, incitement to terrorism and child sexual abuse. E-commerce market like Amazon must also prevent the sale of illegal goods under the new regulations.
Failure to comply with the rules can result in fines of up to 6% of companies’ global annual revenue. For a company like MetaFacebook’s parent company, that could mean fines of up to $7 billion based on sales figures for 2021.
DSA is separate from Digital Markets Act, which EU institutions approved last month. Both come with the threat of hefty fines. But while the DMA seeks to limit the market power of Big Tech companies, the DSA aims to ensure platforms remove malicious content quickly.
The law will affect websites with user-generated content such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
Brussels has a long history of bringing the internet giants out to address competition abuse and data security.
The bloc has leveled a total of 8.2 billion euros ($8.8 billion) in fines against Google antitrust violations and active investigations into Amazon, Apple and Meta.
In 2018, the European Union issued the General Data Protection Regulation, a sweeping set of privacy rules intended to give consumers more control over their information.
It comes as policymakers in Washington grapple with the question of how to rein in the power of big tech companies and get them to wipe out platforms containing harmful content. On Thursday, former President Barack Obama said The tech industry needs regulation to tackle the spread of misinformation online.
“For too long, tech platforms have amplified disinformation and extremism without accountability,” former US Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted on Thursday. .
“I urge our transatlantic allies to push the Digital Services Act to the finish line and strengthen global democracy before it’s too late.”
But how the EU manages to implement its new rules in practice remains unclear. Critics argue that implementing such measures creates a technical burden and raises questions around what is or is not acceptable online speech.
In the UK, new laws designed to tackle unsafe content have been heavily criticized by some in the tech industry – especially Big Tech platforms – due to the vague description of assets. whether “legitimate but harmful”.
Opponents argue that this could greatly limit freedom of expression online. For its part, the UK government has said it will not require any legal freedoms of speech to be removed and that “democraticly important” content will be protected.
