European Parliament’s Plans Of A Digital Services Act Threaten Internet Freedoms

The EU's Digital Services Act is a chance to preserve what works and to fix what is broken. EFF and other civil society groups have advocated for new rules that protect fundamental rights online, while formulating a bold vision to address today's most pressing challenges. However, while the initial proposal by the EU Commission got several things right, the EU Parliament is toying with the idea of introducing a new filternet, made in Europe. Some politicians believe that any active platform should potentially be held liable for the communications of its users and they trust that algorithmic filters can do the trick to swiftly remove illegal content.

In an opinion piece published on "heise online" on 8 November 2021 under a CC BY 4.0 license, Julia Reda, head of the control © project at the civil rights NGO Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) and former Member of the EU Parliament has analyzed the current proposals and explained what is at stake for internet users. We have translated this text below.

Edit Policy: Digital Services Act derailed in the European Parliament

It's a familiar pattern in net politics – the EU Commission makes a proposal that threatens fundamental digital rights. Civil society then mobilizes for protests and relies on the directly elected European Parliament to prevent the worst. However, in the case of the EU's most important legislative project for regulating online platforms – the Digital Services Act – the most dangerous proposals are now coming from the European Parliament itself, after the draft law of the EU Commission had turned out to be surprisingly friendly to fundamental rights.

Apparently, the European Parliament has learned nothing from the debacle surrounding Article 17 of the Copyright Directive. It threatens a dystopian set of rules that promotes the widespread use of error-prone upload filters, allows the entertainment industry to block content at the push of a button, and encourages disinformation by tabloid media on social media.

Vote on Digital Services Act postponed

The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection should have voted this Monday on its position on the Digital Services Act in order to be able to start negotiations with the Commission and the Council. Instead, a hearing for Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was on yesterdays’ agenda (8th November). The postponement of the vote is due to a disagreement among MEPs about the principles of platform regulation. Support for a complete departure from the tried-and-tested system of limited liability for Internet services is growing, directly threatening our freedom of communication on the Net.

The Digital Services Act is the mother of all platform laws. Unlike Article 17, the draft law is intended to regulate not only liability for copyright infringement on selected commercial platforms – but liability for all illegal activities of users on all types of hosting providers, from Facebook to non-commercial hobby discussion forums. Even if platforms block content on the basis of their general terms and conditions, the Digital Services Act is intended to define basic rules for this in order to strengthen users' rights against arbitrary decisions. In view of the balanced draft by the EU Commission, it is all the more astonishing what drastic restrictions on fundamental rights are now becoming acceptable in the European Parliament. The following three proposals are among the most dangerous.

Entertainment industry wants 30-minute blocking delay

Until now, platforms have not been liable for illegal uploads by their users, as long as they remove them immediately after becoming aware of an infringement. How quickly a deletion must be made depends on the individual case – for example, on whether an infringement can be clearly determined following an alert. Courts often deliberate for years on whether a particular statement constitutes an unlawful insult. In such borderline cases, no company can be expected to decide on blocking in the shortest possible time. For this reason, Europ