Digital Services Act: the questionnaire to change the laws of the internet in Europe is online

The European Commission launched a public consultation on the Digital Services Act, whose proposal is scheduled for Q4 2020. The deadline for sending feedback to the questionnaire is 8 September 2020. Two goals of this revision are to review the standards on the liability of online platforms and the way they moderate content and to establish rules to be applied ex-ante to large platforms, which are de facto monopolists, in order to protect a fair market where the positions of startups and competing companies are also safeguarded.

Old principles getting weaker and weaker

The Commission is interested in receiving suggestions on various topics. These range from how to keep users safe online to reviewing the liability regime for platforms. The current rules are based on the 2000 eCommerce Directive, which established that online service providers should not be liable for illegal acts committed by their users unless they were aware of them. Only in that case are they obliged to remove that content even though they do not have the burden of monitoring systematically the existence of violations. Since then, this basic principle, which has allowed startups to grow, has slowly started to lose pieces. First, the already approved copyright reform that requires platforms to take action, most likely with filters, if they do not want to be held responsible for content uploaded for copyright infringement, then the regulation on online terrorism that has been under discussion on the European tables for some time and the Commission’s request to the various Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft to do more to combat online misinformation.

What does the Commission want to know

The Commission also wants to understand what is the perception of users and business who see their business and their thoughts regulated by a handful of gatekeepers. Can Amazon be both market owner and seller? Can Facebook, Twitter and YouTube determine whether a video post can stay online or not when in reality there is no alternative to these platforms where the users can move if they are not satisfied?

Nevertheless, the Commission also wants to get to the heart of other issues that have so far not been settled at all except by means of a ruling in some cases. Are the riders and the workers of the sharing economy self-employed or employees? Which rights do they have when an algorithm decides whether they work?

Some questions from the Digital Services Act questionnaire

Among the questions, which can be filled in either as private individuals or on behalf of companies and organisations, anonymously or not, is whether you have ever come across illegal products or content and what you have done in that case and whether it was difficult to make a complaint or otherwise find a remedy. You are then asked whether, if your own content had been removed, you have received sufficient information about the grounds. Some questions are specifically addressed to companies on how they interact with the platforms. Other questions are addressed to the platforms themselves to understand what measures they take to prevent illegal use and how transparent and cooperative they are with users and companies.

Some solutions are then proposed, such as having a trained team for content moderation or clear procedures for cooperation with authorities and police forces. In this case, the respondent has to indicate if these proposals should be valid for all platforms offering the same type of services (e-commerce, social media…), if only for the larger ones, if only for those more susceptible to illegal activities or if they should be optional.

A unique opportunity

The questions are several and some are a bit technical but it is not mandatory to answer all of them. However, this is a unique opportunity to offer your point of view on how the internet works today and on your level of satisfaction. In the next few years, European institutions will be debating on the laws that will regulate the internet for the next twenty years, so it is better to take advantage of this moment before the whole discussion finally moves to the Brussels tables.

Originally published on Linkedin Pulse on 03 June 2020