Digital: The European Union has finalized its law against Internet abuse

EU member states, commission and parliament finalized the new law on Saturday, which will better deal with hate speech, misinformation campaigns or the sale of counterfeit products such as cyber abuse.

After several months of negotiations, an “agreement” has been reached between European companies on the Digital Services Act (“DSA”), which requires major sites such as Facebook (meta) or Amazon to crack down on illegal and dangerous content online. , European Commissioner for Internal Markets Theory Breton announced on Twitter that he had launched the project with his colleague at the competition Margaret Westerger.

“This agreement is historically significant,” said Ursula van der Leyen, chairwoman of the commission.

“The DSA is the foremost in the world in terms of digital regulation,” the EU Council, which represents 27 member states, said in a statement. “Offline offline includes the principle that it must be illegal online as well, which aims to protect the digital space against the spread of illegal content and to protect the fundamental rights of users.

The digital services regulation is one of two components of a larger plan presented by the European administration in December 2020. The first part, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), deals with anti-competitive practices, which ended at the end of March. The DSA, for its part, is updating the e-commerce mandate, which was born 20 years ago when the giant sites were still the nucleus.

Objective: To put an end to the frequent social media violations: the assassination of Samuel Patti, a history professor in France after the hate campaign in October 2020, and the attack on the Capitol in the United States in January 2021. Thanks to Facebook and Twitter is planned.

The dark side of the internet can be as dangerous as baby toys that do not meet safety standards on sites that are oversold by counterfeit or defective products.

The new regulation establishes an obligation to remove any illegal content (according to national and European law) as soon as a site becomes aware of it. It forces social networks to suspend users who “frequently” violate the law. Online sales sites will force the DSA to verify the identity of their suppliers before delivering their products.

At the center of the project is a list of new obligations imposed on the “biggest sites”, “over 45 million active users” in the EU, that is, about twenty companies, but that includes Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft), as well as Twitter and probably Dictok, Zalando or booking.

These players need to assess for themselves the risks posed by the use of their services and put in place appropriate steps to eliminate problematic content. More transparency will be imposed on their data and recommendation algorithms.

They are audited once a year by independent bodies and placed under the supervision of the European Commission, which can impose fines of up to 6% on their annual sales if repeated violations occur.

“Against the specific consequences of the Russian occupation of Ukraine and the handling of online information, a new article has been introduced to set up a reaction mechanism in the event of a crisis,” the Council noted. European. Implemented by the Commission’s decision, this mechanism will enable it to take “proportional and effective” action against the largest sites that contribute to the dissemination of misinformation.