The EU Digital Services Act comes into force across the board on Saturday

Particularly large online platforms such as Google, Facebook or Instagram must already adhere to the guidelines. The so-called Digital Services Act (DSA) is intended to force online companies to take greater action against illegal and inflammatory content on the Internet. Manipulative practices (“dark patterns”) that are intended to entice users to make purchases will be banned.

More influence and insight for users

In addition, users should have more influence and insight into which advertisements they are shown and why. Advertising targeted at children or based on sensitive data such as religion, gender or political opinions will also be banned.

The DSA does not regulate what is considered illegal content. This is determined by other EU or national laws. In the latter case, the platforms only have to delete or hide or report the content in the affected countries. Online companies with fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover of less than 10 million euros are not affected by the DSA.

Stricter requirements for large platforms

Even stricter requirements also apply to 22 companies designated by the EU Commission as particularly large online platforms. Among other things, they must explain how their platform contributes to the spread of disinformation and what they want to do about it. The EU Commission had already identified 19 such platforms last summer, including well-known Internet giants such as Google, Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram and X (formerly: Twitter).

In December, the Brussels authorities added three pornography sites to the list. A platform is considered particularly large if its number of users in the EU accounts for more than 10 percent of the population, which corresponds to around 45 million users. As part of the DSA, the Commission has already opened proceedings against the online platform X. According to media reports, the short video app TikTok could soon follow.

More transparency in the digital space

“With the Digital Services Act, we are ensuring more transparency in the digital space and taking a significant step towards a secure and fair digital landscape”said Digitization State Secretary Florian Tursky (ÖVP) in a press release. The Internet should not be a legal vacuum. He again called for an obligation to provide the platforms with their real names.

As “evil attack by the overreaching EU elites on freedom of expression and media freedom” as well as “Internet censorship tool” FPÖ media spokesman General Secretary Christian Hafenecker and FPÖ constitutional spokeswoman Susanne Fürst criticized the Digital Services Act. It’s just about “to censor unpleasant opinions, especially on social media, and to silence critical voices”it says in a broadcast.

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