Who says new year says changes in legislation, and therefore potentially change in our daily lives. On the digital side too, the year 2023 will be the occasion for several implementations of texts at national and European level, which should change the situation. These two texts, proposed by the European executive since 2020, aim to regulate the digital markets (of which the GAFAM are accused of monopoly and infringement of the right to competition) and digital services (in particular on the issue of hate in line and moderation of social networks).
Indeed, for several years now the European Union has had the mission of fighting against the economic and strategic domination of the major web platforms in Europe, such as GAFAM (acronym for Google, Amazon, Facebook now Meta, Apple and Microsoft): the two texts of the DMA (Digital Markets Act) and the DSA (Digital Services Act) will come into force at the beginning of 2023.
At European level, counter the GAFAM monopoly
As for the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will come into force on March 2, 2023, it will be a question of directly targeting GAFAM and the large platforms by prohibiting them from promoting their own goods and services, or from exploiting the data of smaller companies to compete with them. In addition, the DMA will prevent large platforms from imposing software (such as search engines for example) by default upon installation. This regulation would allow less interdependency between platforms, but also fairer competition between GAFAM and their more local competitors.
For the Digital Services Act (DSA), the aim of the European Union is to tackle the sale of illicit products but above all the proliferation of violent and illegal content online, through a desire to harmonize national legislation. already in place in some Member States. Watchword ? “What is illegal offline must also be illegal online”. While the DSA will first apply to the major platforms and search engines designated by the European Commission, all platforms will be affected in February 2024.
At the national level, the turning point of a more responsible digital
While in France, illiteracy affects nearly 20% of the population, and many rural areas remain white, the question of the ecological cost of digital is increasingly discussed. Passed in November 2021, the Digital Environmental Footprint Reduction (REEN) law nevertheless provides that before January 1, 2023, the actors concerned by the law must plan a “responsible digital” strategy by defining a work program and Goals. Among these actors, we find municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation with more than 50,000 inhabitants.
Beyond planning a responsible digital strategy, the REEN law wishes to raise awareness and make the general public aware of the ecological impact of digital technology, particularly in schools and universities. In addition, this law aims to limit the renewal of digital devices, thanks to the fight against planned obsolescence. Finally, the law aims to promote data centers and other network architectures that consume less energy, by encouraging them to reduce their energy impact. If all these measures seem encouraging, many are those who denounce the brakes of this law: manufacturers of electronic devices have few obligations, and the law seems less ambitious than expected…
A cyberscore to better navigate the platforms
Always more transparency: this is the objective announced by the bill for the establishment of cybersecurity certification for digital platforms intended for the general public, which will be in force in October 2023. The platforms concerned (such as the most social networks, instant messaging, search engines or videoconferencing sites) will have to display visually, ranging from A (very good) to E (very bad) and from green to red, the level of security of their data.
Like the nutriscore, this “cyberscore” system should make it possible to inform Internet users about the fate of their data, from their security to the location of their hosting. For the moment, the criteria used to determine the score have not been revealed, and we do not know the precise list of platforms covered by this law. Only known fact: a threshold of 5 million visitors per month should be retained for the targeted platforms. Which would mean that GAFAM or even WhatsApp, Zoom, Tik Tok or Snapchat should not escape this law.