The EU has recently adopted the Digital Services Act (DSA), a flagship regulation introducing responsibilities for all actors in the digital sphere. This act creates a specific regime for very large online platforms and search engines. These kind of digital platforms are deemed to be systematically relevant and have a special responsibility for society to make the internet safe. Thus, the EU put in place stronger safeguards for these online players in terms of risk management, transparency, content moderation and children protection.
To be designated carries extra requirements to assess and mitigate systemic risks attached to the use of algorithms and AIs, meaning the platforms must be proactive about analyzing and reporting potential issues related to the operation of technologies like content ranking tools and recommender systems.
Today, 25 April The European Commission identified named 19 online platforms and search engines that must comply with its more rigorous rules for digital services.
Please see the list below or video from Commission:
Very Large Online Platforms (VLOP):
Alibaba AliExpress
Amazon Store
Apple AppStore
Booking.com
Google Play
Google Maps
Google Shopping
Snapchat
TikTok
Wikipedia
YouTube
Zalando
Very Large Online Search Engines(VLOSE):
Bing
Google Search
The list is based on the number of active users in the EU market, which online platforms had until 17 February to publish. All of the designated platforms declared figures above the threshold, except for German marketplace Zalando, which declared 30.8 million in the EU.
Surprisingly, Spotify and Uber stated that they do not meet the threshold, despite the DSA requiring them to publish the exact figure. Pornhub might be in the crosshairs of EU regulators for declaring too low of a figure.
Companies named will have until 25 August to comply with the regulation. The platforms will have to change their policies in order to meet the new obligations under the Digital Services Act.
If the companies fail to comply with the regulations, the EU can impose a penalty equal to 6% of their annual turnover, and ban their services if they repeatedly breach the rules.
This would be implemented with the support with new European Center for Algorithmic Transparency and oversight of the European Commission.
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