Instead of banning more content on social media, the EU law aims to disclose and possibly change how the platforms work.
(Photo: dpa)
Brussels Shortly before the end there was still support from the USA: During a speech at Stanford University on Thursday, former US President Barack Obama praised a new EU law. The “Digital Services Act”, or “DSA” for short, is intended to solve some well-known problems with online platforms. In this way, users should be better protected against harmful content and false reports.
While the US is still thinking about how regulation can work without state censorship, the EU legislators want to make a final decision on the text this Friday. “Right now, Europe is working on some of the most far-reaching legislation to regulate abuse by big tech companies,” said the former US President.
The EU’s approach is indeed new. Instead of banning more content in social media, the way the platforms work should be disclosed and possibly changed: users should find out why they are shown certain content.
You shall have the right to turn off this personalization. Researchers should be given access to algorithms in order to better understand them. In addition, the EU should have access to these algorithms if there is an initial suspicion of harmful effects.
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The Green MEP Alexandra Geese said: “We will use clear rules to resist the principle of division and the business of riot news, fake videos and hate comments.” The digital law should “seal the end of algorithms that fear and anger-driven contributions flush up”.
“We will defend ourselves with clear rules against the business of riot news, fake videos and hate comments,” says Green MEP Alexandra Geese.
(Photo: imago images/Future Image)
The DSA is thus the European answer to the phenomenon that false reports spread faster on the Internet than their correction and that hatred builds up in the comment areas.
The platforms collect large amounts of data about each of their users and assign keywords to them. These keywords determine which content from other users is displayed to them and which advertising is displayed.
This can be in the interest of the users because in this way they see more content that is also of interest to them. At the same time, more emotionalizing content is displayed in this way, which can make you sad, angry or even promote mental illness.
On Instagram, for example, young women are said to have developed eating disorders because of dubious role models on the platform. Despite this, the company did not change anything in the recommendation algorithm.
Researchers have observed that these hoaxes often appear more prominently than real news. This is probably due to the fact that fake news evokes more emotions and is therefore more likely to lead to user interaction. Right-wing extremists, for example, benefit from the widespread conspiracy theories.
The storming of the US Capitol in early 2021 and the persecution of the Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar are also associated with heated sentiment on social media. The fact that such developments should be combated with the DSA has been undisputed in the EU since the Commission presented its first draft of the law at the end of 2020.
The DSA is intended to prevent false reports and hate speech from spreading faster and faster on the Internet.
(Photo: REUTERS)
The DSA contains other regulations, such as deletion deadlines for illegal content and precautions to ensure that fewer counterfeit products end up on the Internet. In Germany, however, many such regulations have long been in force thanks to the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG).
Those are the open points of contention
One of the recent disputes was whether minors may be shown personalized advertising. It also had to be clarified in which cases the new rules would be monitored by the EU and in which cases by the Member States.
>>> also read: Why US tech firms fear Brussels more than Washington
The DSA is the second major digital law within a few weeks that the EU has passed. At the end of March, she had already completed the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which intervenes in the business models of the particularly large digital groups.
It is intended to prevent consumers and companies from being treated unfairly by the powerful corporations. For example, Apple must allow alternative payment methods in its App Store and Amazon must not give preference to its own goods over the offers of smaller providers.
With both laws, the EU is relying on the “Brussels effect”, i.e. hoping for imitators in other parts of the world. Then DSA and DMA could become the basis of new global rules for the Internet.
Not only Barack Obama is counting on this, but also former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “I call on our transatlantic allies to get the Digital Services Act across the finish line and strengthen global democracy before it’s too late,” she wrote on twitter.
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