From August, large Internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Alibaba will have to comply with stricter rules for protecting the rights and needs of users. The European Commission has today set out a list of 19 “very large internet platforms” that will be subject to special conditions under the Digital Services Act (DSA) approved last year.
The companies on the list will have to pay more attention to user privacy or act more consistently against illegal content or misinformation.
Among the Internet platforms with a global impact, Brussels also includes Booking.com, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Wikipedia and Zalando. The criterion for inclusion in this category is at least 45 million monthly active users. Companies have four months to adapt to the rules.
Among other things, their operators will now have to give people the option to alert them to illegal posts. It will also be their duty to inform users of why they are recommending certain posts. At the same time, they will not be allowed to target specific advertising at children, nor be based on sensitive personal data, such as ethnic origin, sexual orientation or political attitudes, in personally targeted advertising.
At the same time, platforms will need to have tools to effectively counter the publication of illegal posts. At the same time, they will be forced to analyze whether disinformation is being spread through them and possibly improve the situation without restricting freedom of expression.
The European bloc adopted rules regulating the operation of the Internet last year with the aim of strengthening supervision over the rapidly developing virtual environment, improving compliance with user rights and limiting the influence of the largest companies. Platforms from the list established today will have to regularly document how they fulfill their obligations. If they do not comply with the rules, they face a fine of up to six percent of the global annual turnover.
