2023-08-28 15:23:16
► Will the European Commission be able to bring the dissenters into line?
The new European regulation on digital services (DSA) barely entered into force on August 25 when already, major players such as Meta (Instagram, Facebook, etc.) or TikTok are communicating. They claim to have implemented new tools to allow Internet users to bypass the recommendation algorithm, report illegal content more easily or limit their time of use.
The European “Digital Services Act” regulation establishes new obligations such as prohibiting targeted advertising towards minors, hunting down illegal content and offering more transparency on their algorithms.
The major social networks therefore seem to want to comply. Conversely, e-commerce sites such as the American Amazon and the German Zalando have challenged their presence on the list of the 19 largest platforms drawn up by Brussels. Refuting the method of calculation, they hope to escape a regulation which obliges them to verify the identity and the reliability of the resellers hosted, to set up random checks and to engage their responsibility.
This first phase of application of the DSA applies to platforms with more than 45 million users. However, some have not even deigned to respond to requests for information from Brussels. “We will prosecute those who have not collectively shared their numbers,” reacted a senior official of the European Commission, questioned on the subject during a press briefing on Friday August 25.
► What will be the means to enforce the text?
To carry out its checks, the European executive relies on “a hundred people” organized in “teams of specialists”. For its part, Meta indicates that it has recruited a thousand people to comply with the DSA…
Cooperation agreements have also been concluded with the European police office Europol to “online crimes such as child crime or incitement to terrorism”, says the Commission. The application of the regulations will also be done in collaboration with an algorithmic expertise center created in Seville, made up of around thirty experts in the long term. “The DSA provides that experts can demand direct access to recommendation algorithms if necessary », Specifies the institution.
In the event of a breach, the DSA exposes the platforms to fines of up to 6% of turnover, or even banishment from the European market. Some platforms such as Meta or Twitter (now X) have undergone Commission tests to verify the compliance of their new tools.
Reporters Without Borders, however, calls on the Commission to “show the greatest firmness in the implementation” and to “quickly and resolutely draw out the most coercive measures”. The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, promised to “enforce scrupulously” the text so that “online platforms no longer benefit from preferential treatment and no longer set their own rules ».
► In France, who can Internet users contact?
To enforce the regulation, the European executive relies on agreements with national Internet regulators, such as Arcom (ex-CSA and Hadopi) in France. These national authorities will also be responsible for ensuring that the smaller platforms comply with the DSA regulation from February 2024. “The Commission, which has exclusive responsibility for supervision, will rely on an ecosystem in a federated approach »summarizes a senior European official.
In February 2024, “trusted flaggers” must also have been labeled in each country. These organizations will be responsible for reporting online hate messages, harassment or scams. They will see their alerts processed as a priority. They will have the means to listen to victims and report cases. For France, this role will be assumed by the government site Pharos.
« We will need the ingenuity and analytical capacity of the associations, researchers, people involved”explains Jean Cattan, the national secretary of the National Digital Council, in a note. The goal remains to“adopt the most proportionate remedies” in “infringing as little as possible on our freedoms”.
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