US tech titans prepare for Brussels’ regulation
A promised Digital Services Act will try to legislate and clarify rules on illegal content, disinformation and ad transparency
The era of self-regulation for tech giants in the EU is coming to an end. Later on Tuesday, the European Commission will publish its first (and perhaps last) annual report on how US tech titans — Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter — are complying with Brussels’ voluntary “code of conduct” to combat online disinformation.
The results, as ever, are mixed. According to a copy of the report seen by the FT, the platforms win praise for proactively removing fake accounts, toughening up rules on who can place ads on their platforms (especially Facebook), and working with independent fact-checkers to monitor the spread of hateful content.
Despite hailing the “comprehensive efforts” made by platforms against hate speech, the commission criticises the still patchy reporting that tech companies are willing to disclose to Brussels.
The report notes that access to data for fact-checkers is still “episodic and arbitrary”. Facebook reports that it removed 2.19bn fake accounts in the first quarter of the year but doesn't say how many of those were in the EU. All the platforms are told they need to disclose more information about how disinformation campaigns can “manipulate voters . . . or more broadly artificially shape public discourse”.
The code of conduct was established in 2016 to push platforms to get serious about the proliferation of hate speech and illegal content on their sites. In the run-up to the European elections last year, Brussels asked tech companies to provide monthly monitoring reports on fake news and potential foreign interference ahead of the vote.
The code was designed to encourage the likes of YouTube and Facebook to self-regulate rather than have sweeping EU-wide legislation come down on them. But that battle looks to have been lost. The incoming commission has promised a Digital Services Act (DSA) by the end of next year that will try to legislate and clarify rules on illegal content, disinformation and ad transparency for any digital company operating in the EU.
One EU official describes the incoming DSA as the “biggest battle” in European tech policy that will probably outlive the multiyear fight about privacy and the General Data Protection Regulation in the last commission. Another official calls the DSA “a bulldozer which will take five years” to agree.
The lobbying wars over what should or should not be in the Act has already begun. Netzpolitik has got hold of the minutes of a private conversation between YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar in the summer, where Wojcicki urged Ireland to back a “responsible” approach to content moderation in the EU.
But with no new commission in office and the nominated French commissioner in charge of the DSA awaiting a grilling from MEPs, there is little clarity about what the Act will or will not do.
On the broader principle of making platforms more responsible for content posted by users, Aleksandra Kuczerawy, a researcher in intellectual property law at the University of Leuven, says tech companies should start getting ready for new legislation in the EU.
“Platforms can’t say that they are passive hosts or just technical providers. Nobody believes that any more,” says Kuczerawy.