Access Partnership’s Héloïse Martorell and Mike Laughton discuss the Digital Services Act, which could be viewed as the EU’s next attempt to set a global standard for digital companies.
Emboldened by the GDPR, the EU is increasingly confident in its ability to set global standards for technology regulation. With the new European Commission in place, 2020 will be a year defined by the Digital Services Act (DSA). In Brussels and for much of the industry, the question is not whether to hold digital companies accountable for the actions of their users, but rather which parts of the digital sector to hold liable and to what extent. The process will take time but will be the defining digital regulation of the decade, as it tackles subjects such as the rights of consumers, censorship, the free market and the responsibility of online platforms.
The danger for industry and users alike is that, in tackling the serious challenges associated with the propagation of harmful content online – through platforms owned by Facebook, Google and Twitter – the competitive landscape is undermined, and businesses further removed from end-users are caught within the scope.
The Digital Services Act is timely, as European countries have already pushed their own initiatives to regulate online platforms. Germany blazed the trail…
