New EU power to fine big tech companies in cracking down on hate speech, disinformation and harmful content


The European Union could fine big tech companies billions of pounds as part of a landmark new deal to tackle hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content online.

The new Digital Services Law will force companies, including Facebook, Google and Amazon, to control themselves more and make it easier for users to detect problems.

EU officials finally sealed the deal in the early hours of Saturday morning and it will affect all 27 member states.

“With the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving as if they are ‘too big to care’ is coming to an end,” EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said.

EU Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager added that “with today’s agreement we ensure that platforms are held accountable for the risks that their services may pose to society and citizens.”

The law stands in stark contrast to regulations in the US, where Silicon Valley lobbyists have largely succeeded in keeping federal lawmakers in check.

The new EU rules, which are designed to protect internet users and their “fundamental rights online,” should make tech companies more accountable for content created by users and amplified by their platforms’ algorithms. .

The need to regulate online platforms became apparent after the 2016 US election when Russia was found to have used targeted ads on social media to influence voters.

Facebook and Twitter promised to crack down on disinformation, but during the COVID-19 pandemic this just flourishedand anti-vaccine falsehoods continued to thrive.

Under EU law, governments could require companies to remove a wide range of content that would be considered illegal, including material that promotes terrorism, child sexual abuse, hate speech and commercial scams.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would need to provide users with tools to flag such content in an “easy and effective way” so that it can be quickly removed.

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Online marketplaces like Amazon would have to do the same for dubious products, like counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.

It also classifies ads directed at minors and those directed at users based on their gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

The tech giants had been pressuring officials in Brussels to ease the rules.

To enforce them, the European Commission is expected to hire more than 200 new employees. To pay for it, tech companies will be charged a “monitoring fee,” which could be as much as 0.1% of their annual global net income, according to negotiations.

Twitter said on Saturday it would review the rules “in detail” and that it supports “intelligent, forward-thinking regulation that balances the need to address online harm with protecting the open Internet.”

Google said in a statement Friday that it looks forward to “working with lawmakers to get the remaining technical details to ensure the law works for everyone.”

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Amazon referred to a blog post from last year that said it welcomed measures that improve trust in online services.

Facebook has not yet commented publicly.

“Big tech companies will strongly resist other countries adopting similar rules, and I can’t imagine companies voluntarily applying these rules outside of the EU,” said Zach Meyers, a senior fellow at the Center for European Reform think tank.



Reference-news.sky.com

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