Tech giants like Google, Meta, Amazon, etc. must comply with extensive rules that hold online platforms legally responsible for the content posted on them. In case of violation, heavy crimes await them.
The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) came into effect on August 25, 2023. According to this law, tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. have to follow extensive rules that hold online platforms legally responsible for the content posted on them.
This new law has been passed in the European Union, but it is likely that we will see its wider global effects as companies adjust their policies to comply with them. In the following, we will explain what exactly this law is and how the European Union plans to implement it.
Under the new rules, online platforms must implement ways to prevent and remove posts containing illegal goods, services or content, while giving users a means to report such content.
Additionally, it prohibits targeting ads based on people’s sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or political beliefs, and imposes restrictions on targeting ads to children. Also, according to the law, online platforms must provide more transparency about how their algorithms work.
The Digital Services Act imposes additional rules on very large online platforms, forcing them to give users the right to opt out of recommendation systems, share key data with researchers and authorities, and meet requirements to respond to crisis to cooperate.
The European Parliament approved this law in July 2022. While the EU has not yet required smaller companies to comply with the Digital Services Act, it has asked very large online platforms to do so within four months of their designation, which occurred in April.
The EU requires each of these platforms to update their user count at least every 6 months. If a platform has less than 45 million monthly users for 1 full year, they will be removed from the list.
Online platforms that do not comply with the Digital Services Act will be fined up to 6% of their global turnover. The Digital Services Coordinator and the EU Commission will have the power to require urgent measures to address the damage if necessary. A platform that persistently does not comply with the law faces a temporary suspension in the EU.
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