Faced with the Far West of the Internet and against the excesses of the giants of the net, the European Union wants to revolutionize regulation on the web from this Friday thanks to the DSA. With this “Digital Services Act”, – hence the acronym DSA -, the EU hopes to force the major platforms, such as Google, Facebook, X or TikTok, to do more in the fight against illegal content, under penalty of heavy fines.
The principle of the new European regulation sounds like a slogan: what is illegal offline must also be illegal online. Not so simple, relativize experts. A delicate balance must be found between freedom of expression and the fight against abuses which threaten fundamental rights or democracy.
Easier to remove flagged content
So how to achieve this? The DSA targets platforms and not users: a series of obligations will be imposed on Friday on the 19 largest social networks, marketplaces and search engines (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Wikipedia, TikTok, etc. .).
As before, the platforms are neither legally responsible for the content they host nor required to identify it beforehand. But the EU hopes to push them to install an effective moderation system, after ten years of online violence.
Among other things, they will have to offer Internet users a tool to easily report “illegal” content, then remove it quickly. “Trusted flaggers” in each country will have their alerts processed as a priority. Merchant sites will also have to track sellers, to reduce fraud.
Fines of up to 6% of worldwide turnover
Their algorithms will also be under surveillance: they will have to explain how their recommendation systems work and offer alternatives without personalization. On the advertising side, the DSA prohibits targeting minors or ads based on sensitive data (religion, sexual orientation, etc.).
Compliance with the rules will be monitored by independent audits, under the watchful eye of Brussels. Violations will result in fines of up to 6% of worldwide turnover. Ultimate threat, repeat offenders could be banned.
“The DSA marks the end of the Internet age where platforms decided on their own what was best for all of us and were ‘too big to care’ about their effects on society,” concludes an official from the EU.