The European Union (EU) has given final approval to online safety-focused legislation, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Details –
- EU has given final approval to the Digital Services Act (DSA).
- The law tightly regulates the way intermediaries, especially large platforms such as Google, Meta, Twitter, and YouTube, function in terms of moderating user content.
Key features of the DSA –
- Faster removals and provisions to challenge —
-
- Social media companies will have to add new procedures for faster removal of content deemed illegal or harmful.
- They will also have to explain to users how their content takedown policy works.
- The DSA also allows for users to challenge takedown decisions taken by platforms and seek out-of-court settlements.
- Bigger platforms have greater responsibility —
-
- Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines, that is platforms, having more than 45 million users in the EU, will have more stringent requirements.
- Hence, the law avoids a one-size fits all approach and places increased accountability on the Big Tech companies.
- Direct supervision by European Commission —
-
- These requirements and their enforcement will be centrally supervised by the European Commission itself.
- This is to ensure that companies do not sidestep the legislation at the member-state level.
- More transparency on how algorithms work —
-
- Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines will face transparency measures and scrutiny of how their algorithms work.
- They will be required to conduct systemic risk analysis and reduction to drive accountability about the society impacts of their products.
- Clearer identifiers for ads and who’s paying for them —
-
- Online platforms must ensure that users can easily identify advertisements and understand who presents or pays for the advertisement.
- They must not display personalised advertising directed towards minors or based on sensitive personal data.
.png)