The European Union has reached an agreement on the adoption of the Digital Services Act (DSA), aimed at increasing the responsibility of tech giants in matters of recommendation algorithms and targeted advertising.
Today’s agreement on #DSA is historical.
Our new rules will protect users online, ensure freedom of expression and opportunities for businesses.
What is illegal offline will effectively be illegal online in the EU.
A strong signal for people, business & countries worldwide.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) April 23, 2022
The final text of the law has not yet been published, but the European Commission disclosed its key details.
DSA pays the most attention to large platforms that have at least 45 million users in the EU. This group includes companies like Meta and Google.
The document prohibits targeted advertising based on religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or political affiliation. Companies also cannot serve personalized ads to minors.
Online platforms like Facebook will be required to disclose information about the operation of content display systems to users. They should offer alternative “non-profiling” systems. This means that major social networks will return chronological methods for displaying content.
Some tech giants will be required to share “key” data with vetted researchers and non-governmental organizations so they can assess “evolution of online risk.”
For non-compliance with the rules, a company can be fined up to 6% of its global turnover.
According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the agreement reached is historic in terms of speed and content.
“This ensures that the online environment remains a safe space, guaranteeing freedom of expression and opportunities for digital business,” she said.
Google supported draft law and expressed their willingness to participate in the development of the final text.
“We applaud the DSA’s goals to make the Internet more secure, transparent and accountable, and to ensure that European users, creators and businesses continue to benefit from an open web,” the company said.
The bill will enter into force 15 months after the vote, but no later than January 1, 2024.
Earlier, the European Parliament approved an initial draft law to ban certain types of personalized advertising.
Recall that in January, China approved the rules for regulating recommender algorithms. The changes came into effect on March 1, 2021.
That same month, the United States proposed a ban on targeted online advertising.
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