By virtue of the unprecedented Digital Services Law (LSD), as of this Friday, August 25, the way of using the Internet in the European Union (EU) changes. Social networking platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook and other technology giants such as Google and Amazon will have to comply with a new regulation that aims to fight illegal content and force greater transparency when it comes to displaying messages to users.
More than a dozen of the world’s largest technology companies now face unprecedented legal scrutiny in the European Union (EU).
This Friday, August 25, the broad Digital Services Law (LSD) came into force, imposing new rules aimed at content moderation, protection of user privacy, transparency and the elimination of harmful or illegal content.
The new rules will have to be complied with by social media platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, as well as Apple’s online App Store, a handful of Google services and other tech giants like Amazon.
What changes with the new regulation in the EU?
These giants will be required, for example, to clearly disclose why they recommend certain information to certain users. They will also need to put in place a simple tool by which they alert people to illegal content and take stronger action to counter disinformation.
In addition, tech companies will need to allow experts from the newly created European Center for Algorithmic Transparency, an EU agency, to assess whether their algorithm meets various obligations.
Until now, automated recommendation systems have decided, based on people’s profiles, what they see in their feeds. According to information released by some technology companies, these tools can now be disabled.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, noted that users can opt out of its artificial intelligence recommendation and ranking systems that determine which Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories and search results to display.
Instead, users can choose to see content only from the people they follow, starting with the most recent posts.
Search results will be based solely on the words they type, not customized based on a user’s past activity and interests, Meta’s president of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said in a blog post.
In the case of TikTok, instead of showing videos based on what users previously watched, the “for you” feed will show popular videos from your area and from around the world.
Turning off recommendation systems also means that the video-sharing platform’s “followers” and “friends” feeds will display posts from accounts users follow in chronological order.
Those on Snapchat “can opt out of a personalized content experience.”
Experts have blamed algorithmic recommendation systems, based on user profiles, for creating so-called filter bubbles and driving social media users to make increasingly extreme posts.
The European Commission intends that people have at least one other option for content recommendations that is not based on their profiles.
Also, it should be easier for those who surf the internet to report a post, video or comment that violates the law or a platform’s rules so that it can be reviewed and removed if necessary.
Tech giants face penalties for non-compliance
Any company found to be in breach of LSD faces a fine of up to 6% of its global turnover, and repeat offenders may be banned from operating in the European bloc entirely.
The EU is seen as a world leader in technology regulation, with more far-reaching legislation, such as the Digital Markets Law and the Artificial Intelligence Law, in the works. The bloc’s success in implementing such laws will influence the introduction of similar rules around the world, experts say.
However, researchers have raised questions about whether these companies have done enough to meet lawmakers’ expectations.
For now, the rules only apply to 19 of the biggest online platforms, those with more than 45 million users in the 27-country bloc.
However, it is expected that from mid-February 2024, the regulation will apply to a variety of online platforms, regardless of their size.
Some tech giants are trying to challenge the measures in court
While none of the designated companies have said they will break the rules, e-commerce giant Amazon and German fashion retailer Zalando have challenged their inclusion on the list in court.
In July, Amazon filed a legal challenge with the Luxembourg-based General Court, the second highest in Europe, arguing that bigger rivals had not been designated in these countries.
“We can expect platforms to fight tooth and nail to defend their practices…especially when new compliance rules encroach on their core business models,” Kingsley Hayes, head of data and privacy litigation at the law firm, told Reuters. Keller Postman.
In recent months, the European Commission indicated that it had offered to carry out “stress tests” of the LSD law with the 19 platforms.
In them they evaluated whether these platforms could “detect, address and mitigate systemic risks, such as disinformation,” said a spokesperson for the Commission.
At least five platforms have participated in such tests: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat. In each case, the Commission noted that more work was needed to prepare for compliance with the law.
On Thursday, just on the eve of the rules taking effect, research published by the nonprofit organization Eko showed that Facebook was still approving online ads with harmful content.
In its defense, Meta responded that “this report was based on a very small sample of ads and is not representative of the number of ads we review on a daily basis around the world.”
With Reuters and AP
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