The European Union has now implemented its Digital Services Act today August 25, 2023. This new legislation will make technology companies comply with advertising policies, transparency, and moderation of the content that they present to users in the European continent.
The new Digital Services Act is set to have companies make modifications to provide safer environments for users online. As of today, applications and social media platforms (among others) have to include ways to prevent and remove posts with illegal objects, and services and provide users with means to report this content.
In addition, the European Union has included a ban that affects advertising based on user’s sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or politics. Moreover, it orders technology companies to restrict the way they target advertisements to children. In consequence, online platforms have had to adjust the ways in which their algorithms function to provide a more transparent approach.
The EU has ordered this legislation to a wide number of online platforms, search engines, and applications, such as the ones with 45 million users in these territories. As of now, there are 19 platforms, websites, and search engines that must comply with this act, including Amazon, Apple App Store, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Wikipedia.
Most of these companies have already planned to comply with the Digital Services Act. In case they do not follow this new legislation, they will be fined up to 6% of their global revenue. The EU Commission has stated that they will have the power to “require immediate actions where necessary to address very serious harms.”
We’re bringing our European values into the digital world.
With strict rules on transparency and accountability, our Digital Services Act aims to protect our children, societies and democracies.
As of today, very large online platforms must apply the new law.— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 25, 2023
