The European Commission is pushing the Digital Services Act, an attempt by the regulatory and legislative body to police the actions of the big US tech giants.
The EU finalized the DSA on Friday, after 16 hours of negotiations, revealing how the legislation would work in practice and which companies it would target.
"The days of big online platforms behaving as if they were 'too big to care' are coming to an end," said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the DSA will "update the ground rules for all online services in the EU."
“It gives practical effect to the principle that what is illegal offline should be illegal online. The larger the size, the greater the responsibilities of online platforms,” he told The Verge.
Although the EU has not yet published the final text of the DSA, the published details show that Meta, Google and others will have to open up their recommendation algorithms, that is, the mechanism by which content is adapted to the individual user, to all . for inspection.
Platforms will also have to offer users alternatives to algorithmic feeds, which would likely mean the reintroduction of chronological feeds, as Instagram recently announced.
The EU is expanding its reach
The purpose of the DSA is fundamentally to regulate the big US-based tech giants, which has historically put them out of reach of the EU, despite countless attempts to impose fines and restrict their activities.
The DSA gives the EU the power to impose heavy fines and ban services if they are perceived not to be doing enough to meet their obligations to moderate content, target advertising and more.
The legislation follows the Digital Markets Act, which aims to control "gatekeeper" companies that offer marketplace services in the EU.
While opening up algorithms to inspection may seem like a positive step in theory, the feasibility of the EU proposal remains to be seen, especially without the final text of the bill.
Some, like Meta's Dare Obasanjo, were quick to pour cold water on the proposal.
Asking tech companies to share how their algorithms work will be the most disappointing outcome of the EU DSA. “We show people the photos and videos that other users have liked and commented on the most” is not an evil plan, but rather it is human nature that does all the work. April 24, 2022
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Read how Telegram is full of bad people because there is no recommendation algorithm to let you know there are racist groups on the app. It's a fun contrast to the EU's decision that the big problem is recommendation algorithms. https://t.co/D3ugCrhV1924April 2022, XNUMX
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There is also evidence to suggest that ordinary people are not as unhappy with the behavior of Google and others as the new EC proposals and citations imply.
The DSA will go into effect on January 1, 2024 at the earliest, but the start date will depend precisely on when the new rules are voted on.