Ever since the introduction of two landmark EU digital laws - the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) - the European Commission has targeted big tech companies and online platforms over various compliance concerns.
Clampdown.
In the EU, two major laws regulating big tech companies and online platforms are currently in force - the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). Recently, the European Commission has been clamping down on companies covered by the rulebooks to ensure that the digital laws are being enforced.
The Commission has identified a number of concerns which will be at the forefront for the coming weeks and months: some about adverse effects on competition in digital markets - under the DMA - and others about negative effects for users' experience on digital services and platforms - under the DSA.
The DSA is a content moderation law that forces big tech to do more to confront illegal and harmful content, as well as fake online material. It came into effect for very large online platforms and search engines in August 2023, and entered into full force for all online platforms in the EU in February 2024.
The DMA is designed to limit the market dominance of big tech by regulating the behaviour of companies the Commission deems to be "gatekeepers" in the digital economy. A gatekeeper is a company that holds a powerful, entrenched position in the EU's digital economy, acting as an intermediary between many users and businesses. The rules took effect on March 7.
The latest legal action came at the end of March, when the European Commission opened investigations into Apple, Google parent company Alphabet and Meta ("Facebook") because it suspects that they are not complying with the DMA.
"These decisions to open non-compliance investigations come only two weeks after the implementation deadline has passed and show that DMA compliance is something that we take very seriously," European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said after announcing the probes.
"The timing of these announcements, while the DMA compliance workshops are still ongoing, makes it look like the Commission could be jumping the gun," said the head of the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) Europe, Daniel Friedlaender. The tech lobby group's members include Apple, Google and Meta.
Big tech scrutinised over competition concerns.
Under the DMA, the Commission has designated six "gatekeepers": Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, Tiktok-owner ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft.
Under the launched investigations, the Commission believes that Apple and Alphabet/Google have not taken effective measures to allow mobile application developers to freely communicate with their customers to provide them with offers outside of the app stores of these two companies (the App Store and Google Play) and without having to pay them a fee.
The Commission also suspects that Alphabet/Google favours its own Google Shopping, Google Flights or Google Hotels in searches over rivals.
Furthermore, Meta is being investigated over its recently-introduced policy of asking users to choose between paying to use its services and consenting to their personal data being shared between the company's services - such as Facebook and Instagram - for use in targeted advertising.
In parallel to the investigations opened under the DMA, the Commission also announced the launch of 'investigative initiatives' to verify whether Amazon favours its products on the Amazon Store and, again on Apple, whether Apple's new pricing structure complies with the DMA.
The European Commission intends to conclude its investigations into Apple, Alphabet/Google and Meta under the DMA within 12 months. If after completing the investigation their suspicions are confirmed, Brussels will explain to the companies what measures they must take or what the Commission itself will adopt, which could mean a fine of ten percent of their global turnover or 20 percent if they repeatedly violate the regulations.
Disinformation and deepfakes loom ahead of EU elections. Last month, the EU also demanded more information from TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, Google, YouTube, Snapchat and Bing on what measures they are taking to tackle risks of artificial intelligence, including from deepfakes - on this occasion under the Digital Services Act.
The Digital Services Act is the EU's biggest tool for content moderation. Under it the bloc has designated 22 digital platforms as "very large", including Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and X. The latter has already been under investigation since December over content moderation.
The call for companies to take measures against AI-related risks is part of a raft of guidelines published under the landmark content law by the European Commission for digital giants to tackle risks to elections including disinformation. The Commission has unleashed a string of measures to clamp down on big tech, especially regarding content moderation.
Brussels especially fears the impact of Russian manipulation and disinformation on elections taking place in the bloc's 27 member states on June 6-9.
"With today's guidelines we are making full use of all the tools offered by the DSA to ensure platforms comply with their obligations and are not misused to manipulate our elections, while safeguarding freedom of expression," said Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market.
For years tech titans have self-regulated under codes of practice on disinformation but must now comply with EU rules or risk fines of up to six percent of a platform's global turnover.
Companies covered by the European Commission's request had to provide the Commission with the requested information by 5 April for election protection issues will have to inform it by April 26 for the remaining issues.
Individual EU member states also implement the DSA in their own national legislation, which is not always uncontroversial in domestic politics.
In Romania, for example, a national law for the application of the DSA entered into force on March 22. The law creates a mechanism through which public authorities or institutions with competence in certain sectors or fields of activity can issue orders for the removal of certain content considered illegal under national rules and for fines in case of non-compliance.
According to the law, the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) is responsible for all aspects related to the supervision and enforcement of the DSA.
The Romanian political opposition, however, accuses ANCOM of setting up an "internet police".
(The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, Agerpres, ANSA, dpa, EFE).
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