The European Union has begun an intense lobbying season in Brussels as it
prepares to overhaul decades-old rules to keep a tighter leash on Facebook,
Google and other tech giants.
The European Commission asked for feedback, including from the public and EU
governments, before it unveils a new law at the end of the year, to be known
as the Digital Services Act.
The major piece of legislation is one of the EU executive's top priorities
and could set the standard worldwide for stricter oversight of how the
internet's biggest platforms handle disinformation, personal data and
expanding their businesses.
"Online platforms have taken a central role in our life, our economy and our
democracy," Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a statement.
"With such a role comes greater responsibility, but this can happen only
against the backdrop of a modern rulebook for digital services," he added.
Respondents have until September 8 to give their views, with the
commission's draft of the new law expected in December.
It would then face changes and ratification by EU member states and European
Parliament where MEPs have already drawn up at least three versions of their
own.
The legislation will land at an extraordinarily sensitive time for tech
giants, with Twitter and Facebook at loggerheads in the US over how to
handle controversial tweets by President Donald Trump.
Warning tags by Twitter on presidential tweets provoked Trump into revoking
a legal pillar of the US internet, which shields digital platforms from
lawsuits linked to content posted by third parties.
The EU's law will also explore ways to revisit the liability of platforms
for content on their sites, a change of practice that tech giants say would
limit free speech and slow innovation.
Existing EU rules for internet actors date from 2000 when the digital world
was far less developed.
"That debate has increased with tremendous speed with the actions of the US
president," the EU commission's executive vice president Margrethe Vestager
said on Friday.
"Giant platforms, they are different. They are not what we thought 20 years
ago: just a completely neutral channel for what users put out there," she
said.
Central to the EU's new law is the concept of internet "gatekeeper" and the
questionnaire asks respondents to define what attributes make certain actors
impossible to bypass when doing business online.
Big tech lobbyists are trying to stop the EU from defining gatekeeper status
and ask Brussels to stick to existing competition law and other rules to
keep tabs on them.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai have made recent
interventions with top EU officials to press their case.
Several key EU member states meanwhile are pushing for tougher scrutiny
especially on curbing hate speech.
The last skirmish between the EU and big tech was in 2019 over copyright
reform that saw one of the most intense lobbying frenzies in recent Brussels
history.
Website:
www.rte.ie/business
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