EFF statement on EU Parliament's adoption of Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act
The laws have important tools to make the internet a fairer place, but there are challenges ahead
SAN FRANCISCO — The European Union reached another milestone by approving the “Digital Services Act package.” The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) are intended to create a safer and more competitive digital space.
By setting out new responsibilities for online platforms, the DSA was supposed to rein in the power of Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon and both better educate and empower users, but many of its approaches were initially quite problematic. The final bill avoids transforming social networks and search engines into censorship tools. It also retains important principles under the previous internet rules that helped to make the internet free, such as allowing liability exemptions for online platforms for the speech of others and limiting user monitoring. It also imposes higher standards for transparency around content moderation and creates more user control over algorithmically curated recommendations.