digital
Illegal content – Internet platforms have a duty
Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) has presented a draft for a “Digital Services Act”. photo
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
“What is forbidden offline must also be online,” says Digital Minister Wissing – and wants to target internet platforms with a new law.
According to the announcement, Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) said: “We have given ourselves clear rules in Europe so that every citizen can surf the net safely and freely. What is forbidden offline must also be online. The platform operators also bear responsibility here, to intervene in the event of insults, incitement to violence or identity abuse.”
According to the ministry, the draft law supplements the so-called Digital Services Act of the EU for Germany. According to Wissing, the Federal Network Agency is intended to create a strong platform supervision in order to consistently enforce the new obligations for online services in Germany as well. The law also modernizes the legal framework for digital services in Germany and regulates fines and penalties for violations of the Digital Services Act. For platform operators, for example, these could be sanctioned with up to six percent of their annual turnover.
Users can report violations to the Federal Network Agency
If online services do not meet their obligations, users can report this to the Federal Network Agency. While the provisions for very large online platforms and search engines with over 45 million users are already in force and will be enforced directly by the EU Commission, the rules for smaller services will only apply from February 2024, according to the Ministry. Supervision takes place here in the respective member states.
In April, the EU Commission classified Twitter – now renamed X – Facebook, Tiktok, several Google services and others as “very large online platforms” and “very large online search engines” under the Digital Services Act. You have to meet particularly strict rules against illegal content in the EU. The act is intended to ensure that platforms remove illegal content from their sites faster than before.