The European Union published a list of 19 online platforms last Tuesday that will be subject to enhanced EU controls, including the obligation to conduct independent annual audits to ensure they effectively combat disinformation, online hate or counterfeit products, according to reports.
“The countdown is on,” said Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, after the commission published the list on Tuesday April 25th. Under its new digital legislation, the Digital Services Act (DSA), the enhanced obligation must be submitted four months ago.
The list includes AliExpress, the cross-border e-commerce platform owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, global e-commerce giants Amazon, Apple’s App Store, Bing search engine and Booking site Booking, As well as LinkedIn, Snapchat, ByteDance’s TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram; Five Google services — Search, Maps, Play Store, Shopping and YouTube — are also included. As well as Pinterest, online encyclopedia Wikipedia and European online fashion sales giant Zalando.
The standard for this list is that they have over 45 million users, accounting for over 10% of the European Union (EU) population. The internal market specialist warned that “four or five other platforms” may be added in the coming weeks. The committee is still investigating whether digital law applies to certain online platforms, such as Telegram, Airbnb, PornHub, or Spotify, which claim not to comply with digital law, but EU executives believe they may meet the conditions.
DSA came into effect in November 2022, aiming to better regulate network content. As Thierry Breton often explains, ‘What is prohibited in the real world is also prohibited in the virtual world’. Therefore, racist attacks, terrorist content, child pornography, false information, the sale of counterfeit products or products that do not meet European standards are also prohibited on the internet.
Post time: May-15-2023