Rearranging the rules in the world of the Internet: The European Union has been planning nothing less than this for several years in order to put a stop to large online platforms and to better protect consumers from the market power of Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple and Microsoft.
Some projects are about to come into force, said Ranjana Andrea Achleitner, university assistant at the Institute for European Law at the Linz JKU, yesterday at an online press conference. “Europe wants a fundamental reform of the digital space,” said the lawyer, adding: “But that often amounts to squaring the circle.” The line between information and censorship is narrow.
The Brussels institutions want to press the delete button on the Internet, especially in the case of terrorist content. On June 7, the “Regulation to Prevent the Spread of Terrorist Internet Content” will come into force in the EU – after almost seven years of negotiations. The ordinance states that images, videos or texts circulating on the Internet that can be attributed to terrorists or groups must be deleted by the operators of the respective platforms within one hour. Otherwise, penalties of up to four percent of the annual turnover of the provider threaten.
Achleitner said that the “originally positive and sensible thought” was also in danger of boomeranging. This is because the platforms, out of fear of penalties, could filter content so heavily that not only does it include terrorist propaganda, but also, for example, neutral reporting on the war in Ukraine or satire. In addition, each online platform follows its own “house rules”, which makes it difficult to find and filter out illegal content.
The “Digital Services” (DSA) and “Digital Markets” (DMA) regulations are also about to be completed. While the DSA is still about final points of contention, the DMA should come into force in 2023 – also because French President Emmanuel Macron is insisting on an agreement before the end of the French Council Presidency, said lawyer Achleitner.
“do nails with heads”
With DSA and DMA, corporations should no longer be able to force smaller companies out of the market so easily. According to Achleitner, the EU now wants to “get down to business. There are now strong instruments to stop platforms getting away with everything”.
Source: Nachrichten
