At the plenary session, MEPs accepted new standards for a fairer digital market and a safer digital space for users, contained in the Act on Digital Services and the Act on Digital Markets, which regulate internet platforms.
In addition to the rules known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), lawmakers also approved the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content, reports REUTERS.
Under the Digital Services Act, which was passed in the final vote by 539 votes to 54 with 30 abstentions, online platforms, such as social networks and online marketplaces, will have to take measures to protect their users from illegal content and goods.
– We must make sure that there are no negative consequences for minors, for all children, that people are encouraged to buy in an illegal way. The digital environment needs to be safer and that is what we will establish. Platforms should give users more information – said the rapporteur, social democrat Christel Schaldemose, during the discussion on Monday.
Stricter obligations for large platforms
Very large internet platforms and services will be subject to stricter obligations commensurate with the risks they pose to society. Large technology companies will have to operate more transparently, act against the spread of disinformation, and illegal content, suppress negative effects on fundamental rights and be subject to independent audits.
– The largest platforms must make their algorithms transparent. If the algorithms point to illegal content, misinformation, or conspiracy theories, we can react because this is something that can have negative consequences for us. Therefore, algorithms should be available to institutions, governments, and competent authorities so that we can truly monitor the situation – added Šaldemose.
The focus of the Act on Digital Markets, adopted with 588 votes in favor, 11 against, and 31 abstentions, is the unfair practices of the largest Internet platforms that act as supervisors of access to the digital market, such as social networks and search engines.
– Platforms will now have to take care of the legality of the content they offer. They will have to respect the rules of market competition. The companies themselves, not just the Commission, will have to make sure that free-market competition is allowed on their platforms – said rapporteur Andreas Šwab (Schwab) (EPP) during the joint debate on the acts on Monday.
“Users will no longer be able to be manipulated”
Some very large players have emerged, which have become very powerful and unsupervised, and provide internet brokerage services, social networks, internet search engines, operating systems, online advertising services, cloud computing, and video sharing services, it said.
– Due to the use of these regulations, social networks and platforms will have to ensure fair use and the approach will no longer function according to the principle of “who is stronger, he oppresses”. Users will no longer be able to be so easily manipulated or taken advantage of. We in the European Union want the best companies, not just the biggest – Švab added.
The Commissioner of the European Commission for the internal market, Thierry Breton, said on Monday that the big platforms can no longer say that they are only intermediaries, but that they are also responsible for the content.
– Access is now given to a large digital market, where simple, fair and transparent rules are applied. We give the possibility to open that black box of algorithms that the platforms used for too long as a guise under which they often violated the interests of our citizens – said Breton.
Borzan: This will change the Internet as we know it
Croatian socialist MP Biljana Borzan said that these laws “will change the Internet as we know it and establish a standard for the protection of citizens at the world level.”
– The Internet has become the wild west over the years. Everyone there can impersonate themselves, everyone can follow everyone, take their data, cheat, damage money, and everyone can say and write something bad and false about everyone without any consequences. For too long, our citizens have been left to the will of Google and Facebook, who profited heavily from our data, even the most sensitive ones – said Borzan.
Access controllers may no longer prioritize their own products and services or process users’ personal data for targeted advertising unless they have expressed their consent.
They are threatened with huge fines
If they violate the new rules, they will be fined up to a maximum of 10 percent of their total worldwide turnover in the previous financial year, or up to a maximum of 20 percent in case of repeated violations.
After the Council officially adopts them, both acts will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force twenty days after publication, the European Parliament announced.
