The Digital Services Act: ensuring a safe and accountable online environment

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https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-a ... ronment_en

The Digital Services Act: ensuring a safe and accountable online environment
For the first time a common set of rules on intermediaries' obligations and accountability across the single market will open up new opportunities to provide digital services across borders, while ensuring a high level of protection to all users, no matter where they live in the EU.

What are the key goals of the Digital Services Act?
The new rules are proportionate, foster innovation, growth and competitiveness, and facilitate the scaling up of smaller platforms, SMEs and start-ups. The responsibilities of users, platforms, and public authorities are rebalanced according to European values, placing citizens at the centre. The rules

Better protect consumers and their fundamental rights online
Establish a powerful transparency and a clear accountability framework for online platforms
Foster innovation, growth and competitiveness within the single market

For citizens
Better protection of fundamental rights
More choice, lower prices
Less exposure to illegal content

For providers of digital services
Legal certainty, harmonisation of rules
Easier to start-up and scale-up in Europe

For business users of digital services
More choice, lower prices
Access to EU-wide markets through platforms
Level-playing field against providers of illegal content

For society at large
Greater democratic control and oversight over systemic platforms
Mitigation of systemic risks, such as manipulation or disinformation
Which providers are covered?

The Digital Services Act includes rules for online intermediary services, which millions of Europeans use every day. The obligations of different online players match their role, size and impact in the online ecosystem

Intermediary services offering network infrastructure: Internet access providers, domain name registrars, including also:
Hosting services such as cloud and webhosting services, including also:
Online platforms bringing together sellers and consumers such as online marketplaces, app stores, collaborative economy platforms and social media platforms.
Very large online platforms pose particular risks in the dissemination of illegal content and societal harms. Specific rules are foreseen for platforms reaching more than 10% of 450 million consumers in Europe.

All online intermediaries offering their services in the single market, whether they are established in the EU or outside, will have to comply with the new rules. Micro and small companies will have obligations proportionate to their ability and size while ensuring they remain accountable. In addition, even if micro and small companies grow significantly, they would benefit from a targeted exemption from a set of obligations during a transitional 12-month period.


What is the impact of new obligations?

The Digital Services Act significantly improves the mechanisms for the removal of illegal content and for the effective protection of users’ fundamental rights online, including the freedom of speech. It also creates a stronger public oversight of online platforms, in particular for platforms that reach more than 10% of the EU’s population.

This means concretely:

measures to counter illegal goods, services or content online, such as a mechanism for users to flag such content and for platforms to cooperate with “trusted flaggers”
new obligations on traceability of business users in online market places, to help identify sellers of illegal goods or reasonable efforts by online market places to randomly check whether products or services have been identified as being illegal in any official database
effective safeguards for users, including the possibility to challenge platforms’ content moderation decisions
ban on certain type of targeted adverts on online platforms (when they target children or when they use special categories of personal data, such as ethnicity, political views, sexual orientation)
transparency measures for online platforms on a variety of issues, including on the algorithms used for recommendations
obligations for very large platforms and very large online search engines to prevent the misuse of their systems by taking risk-based action and by independent audits of their risk management systems
access for researchers to key data of the largest platforms and search engines, in order to understand how online risks evolve
oversight structure to address the complexity of the online space: EU countries will have the primary role, supported by a new European Board for Digital Services; for very large platforms, supervision and enforcement by the Commission

What are the next steps?
Following the entry into force of the Digital Services Act (DSA) on 16 November 2022, online platforms had 3 months to report the number of active end users on their websites. Based on the numbers provided, the Commission was able to assess whether a platform was designated a very large online platforms (VLOPs) or very large online search engines (VLOSEs) status.

On 25 April 2023, the first designation decisions were made. Following such a designation decision by the Commission, the entity in question will have 4 months to comply with the obligations under the DSA, including carrying out and providing the first annual risk assessment exercise.

EU Member States will need to empower their Digital Services Coordinators by 17 February 2024, the general date of entry in application of the DSA, when the DSA is fully applicable for all entities in its scope.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content ... 32022R2065

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content ... 32022R2065