Joan Barata on the EU’s Digital Services Act

The DSA is a remarkable and unique proposal in the field of online platform regulation, but it threatens freedom of expression, CMDS Fellow Joan Barata argues in two articles on the EU’s proposed new Digital Services Act.

Joan Barata writes about the EU’s proposed Digital Services Act, on which the trilogue talks reached a political agreement at the end of April. He analyses the agreement in a more legally oriented piece for the DSA Observatory and in an article more accessible for the general public on Cepa.org.

He points out that the proposed legislation is indeed important, because, as European leaders argue, “free speech is facilitated through content moderation; otherwise, the harmful speech will proliferate, turning them into potential cesspools.” Yet the agreed-upon proposal includes several amendments that are problematic and may restrict free speech.

Some NGOs worry that the European Commission will have broad powers to police how online platforms handle content in times of serious crises through an “emergency mechanism” added to the DSA.

Other concerns include vague obligations towards the platforms that may incentivize them to remove and restrict certain legal speech to avoid liability.

The agreement also missed opportunities in important and relevant areas, he argues. For example, the right to use services anonymously has not been incorporated in the text. 

“The final agreement also seems to have missed the opportunity to incorporate mandatory and extensive human rights checks and balances to be implemented by both relevant authorities and platforms as a fundamental component of any mandate or compliance mechanism.”

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay