28 February 2024
Risky Recommendations
2024 will see numerous elections, including the European Parliament Elections in June. The Digital Services Act (DSA) obliges Big Tech to assess and mitigate systemic risks for “electoral processes”. The Commission published Draft Guidelines on the mitigation of systemic risks for electoral processes and sought feedback from all relevant stakeholders. While the protection of election integrity is a laudable aim, the Guidelines as proposed would not rebuild but further erode citizen trust in the digital environment and democratic processes. The recommendations are too vague, too broad and too lenient as regards the suggested cooperation between Big Tech, civil society and public authorities. Continue reading >>
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23 February 2024
A2D for Researchers in Digital Platforms
Over the past decade, access to data (A2D) in digital platforms has emerged as a significant challenge within the research community. Researchers seeking to explore data hosted on these platforms encounter growing obstacles. While legal policies in the US have generally focused on establishing safeguards for researchers against the restrictions on access imposed by private ordering, the recent EU Digital Service Act (DSA) introduces a legal framework, which enables researchers to compel platforms to provide data access. These complementary legal strategies may prove instrumental in facilitating A2D for research purposes. Continue reading >>
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22 February 2024
The DSA’s Trusted Flaggers
One of the most-publicized innovations brought about by the Digital Services Act (DSA or Regulation) is the ‘institutionalization’ of a regime emerged and consolidated for a decade already through voluntary programs introduced by the major online platforms: trusted flaggers. This blogpost provides an overview of the relevant provisions, procedures, and actors. It argues that, ultimately, the DSA’s much-hailed trusted flagger regime is unlikely to have groundbreaking effects on content moderation in Europe. Continue reading >>21 February 2024
Will the DSA have the Brussels Effect?
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a comprehensive effort by the European Union (EU) to regulate digital services. Many on-lookers in Europe and beyond its borders wonder about whether the DSA will influence activities outside of Europe via a “Brussels Effect.” In this contribution, we argue that when it comes to extraterritorial spill-over effects of the DSA that are driven by economic incentives or de facto standardisation and private ordering. Continue reading >>
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21 February 2024
Human Rights Outsourcing and Reliance on User Activism in the DSA
Article 14(4) of the Digital Services Act (DSA) places an obligation on providers of intermediary services, including online platforms hosting user-generated content (see Article 3(g) DSA), to apply content moderation systems in “a diligent, objective and proportionate manner.” Against this background, the approach taken in Article 14(4) DSA raises complex questions. Does the possibility of imposing fundamental rights obligations on intermediaries, such as online platforms, exempt the state power from the noble task of preventing inroads into fundamental rights itself? Can the legislator legitimately outsource the obligation to safeguard fundamental rights to private parties? Continue reading >>
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20 February 2024
Towards a Digital Constitution
The DSA exemplifies the EU's efforts to create a fairer, more responsible digital environment. Through the DSA, the EU appears to be advancing a process of constitutionalisation of Internet governance, as an important milestone in the evolving landscape of “digital constitutionalism”, aiming to establish a unified framework of rights, principles, and governance norms for the digital space, while also contributing to the development of new governance structures and regulatory bodies dedicated to effectively safeguarding fundamental rights online. Continue reading >>
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19 February 2024
A Hobgoblin Comes for Internet Regulation
Recent laws in the US, along with the Digital Services Act (DSA), seek to provide “due process” for individual content moderation decisions. Due process, understandably enough, often contains a component of treating like cases alike. It seems to follow, then, that if two relevantly similar users are treated differently, there is a problem of inconsistency, and that problem might be addressed by requiring more “due process” in the forms of appeals and clear rules and explanations of those rules to offenders. But it is said that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. In internet regulation, it is a damaging goal if taken as a mandate to make individual decisions uniformly consistent with each other. Continue reading >>
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19 February 2024
From the DMCA to the DSA
On 17 February 2024, the Digital Services Act (DSA) became fully applicable in Europe. The DSA's new approach fundamentally reshapes the regulation and liability of platforms in Europe, and promises to have a significant impact in other jurisdictions, like the US, where there are persistent calls for legislative interventions to reign in the power of Big Tech. This symposium brings together a group of renowned European and American scholars to carry an academic transatlantic dialogue on the potential benefits and risks of the EU’s new approach. Continue reading >>
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13 February 2024
Das Bundeskriminalamt als überdimsensionierte Plattformpolizei
Das von der Bundesregierung vorgeschlagene Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG-E) soll im Bundestag bis zum März abschließend verhandelt werden und dann schon im April in Kraft treten. Ein wichtiger Aspekt des Gesetzentwurfs erhält bisher zu wenig Aufmerksamkeit: Was genau soll eigentlich das Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) nach § 13 DDG-E - der nationalen „Begleitgesetzgebung” zu Art. 18 Digital Services Act (DSA) - machen? Ist diese Rolle im gegenwärtigen Entwurf hinreichend abgesichert? Und bedarf es dafür wirklich - wie geplant - 450 Stellen? Continue reading >>
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08 January 2024
Community Notes auf dem Prüfstand
Die größten Social Media Plattformen haben ein Problem mit Desinformation. Insbesondere auf X, vormals Twitter, war nach dem Terroranschlag der Hamas am 07.10.2023 und dem Beginn des Krieges in der Ukraine eine Flut an Falschinformationen feststellbar. Daher hat die EU-Kommission vor Kurzem mitgeteilt, dass sie ein förmliches Verfahren nach Art. 66 Abs. 1 Digital Services Act (DSA) gegen X eingeleitet hat. Gegenstand der Untersuchung ist unter anderem, ob die Plattform hinreichend gegen dieses Problem vorgeht. X setzt dabei alles auf eine Karte: Wie aus dem X Transparency Report vom 03.11.2023 geschlossen werden kann, unterliegen Desinformationen nicht der sog. Content Moderation, sondern ihnen soll allein durch den Einsatz eines neuen Tools entgegengewirkt werden. Das heißt, dass die Nutzerinhalte auf X von Seiten des Betreiberunternehmens weder durch Algorithmen noch durch dazu beauftragte Personen auf Falschinformationen kontrolliert werden. Continue reading >>
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