The Digital Services Law

The Digital Services Law

Large platforms such as Amazon, Google or Facebook enjoy a dominant position in the market, have a disproportionate advantage over their competitors and have long benefited from the absence of standards or rules regulating their performance in the digital world.

Therefore, the Digital Services Act (hereinafter the “DSA“) focuses on creating a safer digital environment for all companies involved, as well as for users, through the protection of fundamental online rights.

Scope and objectives of the Digital Services Act

The DSA entered into force on November 16, 2022 and will become directly applicable throughout the European Union on February 17, 2024.

However, large platforms such as those mentioned in the introductory paragraph of this article will have to comply with their obligations under the new legislation prior to that date and, at the latest, four months after the European Commission designates them. 

In this regard, the European Commission designated the first group of large platforms (those with 45 million monthly active users or more) on April 25, 2023, and these platforms must comply with the obligations under the DSA before the date set for February 17, 2024. 

The main objective of the DSA is to modernize the e-commerce directive with regard to illegal content, disinformation and advertising, as well as to create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of users are protected and a level playing field is established for all market players. 

Specifically, this new Act is focused on regulating the performance of online platforms (social media and online marketplaces) and online search engines.

Transparency and accountability in digital platforms

Some of the new obligations this Law imposes on affected platforms include transparency and accountability obligations that would involve disclosing how their algorithms work for recommendations, how decisions are made to remove content or how advertisers target users. In addition, platforms will be required to ensure that:

• Their risk assessments and their compliance with all obligations under the DSA are externally and independently audited.
• Researchers can have access to data that are public.
• Have a repository in which all advertisements used in their interface are published.
• Publish transparency reports on content moderation decisions and risk management.

Protection of users’ rights in the digital environment

Users shall have the right to:

• Receive clear information about the reasons why certain information is recommended to them.
• Unsubscribe from the recommendation systems created for profiling purposes.
• Easily report illegal content, and the platforms are obliged to process their reports with rigor and diligence.
• Receive a clear and easily understandable summary of the terms of use of the platforms.
• Not to receive advertisements based on sensitive data such as, for example, on the basis of ethnic origin, political opinion or sexual orientation.

Measures to combat illegal online content

Online platforms and search engines shall be obliged to adopt the necessary measures to address the risks associated with the dissemination of illegal content, the negative effects on freedom of expression (ensuring that their users’ comments are not offensive, denigrating to other users, etc.) and information. 

Likewise, they must have mechanisms or measures in place for users to alert them about the publication or dissemination of illegal content within the platform, and must act accordingly as soon as possible.

In addition, they must detect, analyze and evaluate any systemic risk arising from the operation of their service and determine and implement proportionate and effective mitigation measures adapted to the defined risks.

The new tecnologies have revolutionized the comunication, promoting new ways to comunicate with each other, whether it might be a personal or business relationship. All these changes affect any type of relationship, so they need an specific regulation. Taking all these into consideration, lawers with high expertise in the digital law field, have become increasingly necessary so we can get the help needed any moment.