EU lawmakers have set out a major set of new legislations designed to heavily curb the powers of US Big Tech companies, forcing them to police content online more aggressively and keeping users safe on the internet.
EU to contain power of Big Tech
After nearly 16 hours of negotiations, legislators in Brussels endorsed measures preventing companies such as Facebook and Google from targeting minors with online advertising, while manipulative techniques that force people to click on content will be banned.
Big Tech groups will be forced to disclose to EU regulators how they are tackling disinformation and war propaganda in order to curb the spread of fake information — an effort that has gained fresh momentum since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Digital Services Act, agreed in Brussels between member states, the European Commission and the European Parliament, is part of a push in Brussels to lead the way on how the internet should be regulated.
Earlier this year the EU approved a separate piece of legislation, the Digital Markets Act, which aims to tackle the market power of Silicon Valley firms.
The suite of legislative measures, against which the world’s biggest technology companies lobbied bitterly, represents the most significant overhaul of the laws governing their operation in more than two decades.
Countries such as the US, Canada and Singapore are expected to follow with similar rules in the coming months.
It comes after years of frustration over antitrust enforcement being too slow or inefficient. Senior EU officials hailed it as a turning point in regulating Big Tech.
“The time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ is coming to an end,” said Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market.
The DSA aims to make the internet safer for consumers. Internet companies will have to offer terms and conditions that are understandable even to children.
Targeting users online based on their religion, gender or sexual preferences are among the practices to be banned. Internet platforms such as Twitter will have to be transparent in the way they recommend content to their users.
They will also have to be properly staffed to deal with content moderation because users will have the right to complain in their own language. Those who breach the rules face heavy fines and bans from operating within the EU.
The new legislation sets clear obligations for platforms that are designed to be proportionate to size, impact and risk, Breton said.
The commission will be able to “impose effective and dissuasive sanctions of up to 6% of global turnover or even a ban on operating in the EU single market in case of repeated serious breaches,” he added.
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