EU agrees to DSA to force companies to act against fake news – IT Pro – News

The European Commission has reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act, which obliges major tech companies, among others, to take a tougher approach to disinformation. Part of the law is that the companies must take stronger action against fake news and that they must be open about algorithms that stimulate fake news dissemination.

The law has been officially adopted by the European Union and will come into effect at the end of this year. The Digital Services Act, or DSA, revolves around content on online platforms. Tweakers wrote at the beginning of this year a background article about what the DSA regulates. The core of the law is that platforms must take stronger action against unwanted content, such as images of child abuse or terrorist material. Although companies are already taking action against this, the EU believes that tech companies should not regulate themselves but that this should be done at government level.

One of the most controversial parts of the law is the regulation of disinformation. Under the DSA, companies are required to be tougher on fake news. The Dutch State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen of Digitization says in a reaction to be pleased with the new law. “This legislation is a breakthrough in how we tackle disinformation. Big tech companies now have to do a lot more. They have to keep out bots and fake accounts and work with independent fact-checkers. Algorithms that stimulate disinformation need to be adapted. That is a big step forward.”

Van Huffelen tells Tweakers that she does not think that this is at odds with freedom of expression. “It also exists within the DSA. Of course it is a difficult discussion, that was also the sore point of the consultation. Freedom of expression is very important, but we also have to pay attention to the negative sides if this is not regulated, such as hate speech and polarization. We need to address that.”

In the future, tech companies will also have to be open about the algorithms they use to organize information and show news. With this, the EU hopes that there will be more clarity about the ways in which fake news and disinformation are promoted on the platforms. There will be new supervisors for that. Similar to the GDPR, there will be a European supervisor and a national supervisor. In the Netherlands, that package of tasks may be assigned to the future algorithm supervisor which will fall under the Dutch Data Protection Authority. State Secretary Van Huffelen says she is in consultation with the AP, which is ‘currently looking at how it can fulfill that role’. Consultations are also underway with, among others, the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Van Huffelen emphasizes that the decision is not yet complete. “We still have to fill in at the national level who will oversee this, but there is a certain logic in assigning that task to this algorithm overseer.”

It is striking that the algorithm supervisor in both the election manifestos as in the coalition agreement was presented as a solution against discriminatory algorithms in government. The regulation of algorithms of tech companies was hardly mentioned at the time.

At the moment, the proposed algorithm supervisor for the Netherlands does not yet exist. When the DSA comes into effect at the end of this year, the government must rush to create a regulator, be it a new regulator or the proposed algorithm watchdog. Van Huffelen: “As far as I’m concerned, we are also speeding up the algorithm watchdog. We wanted that anyway. The plan is to have clear before the summer what exactly the process will be.”

If supervision of big-tech algorithms does indeed come under the new algorithm watchdog, the question is how much clout it will have. That watchdog will soon fall under the responsibility of the AP. That brought last week its annual report† It stated that the supervisor falls short in almost all areas due to a lack of money. Van Huffelen is not afraid that the DSA will only be effective on paper. “It will be up to me in the future to ensure that enforcement functions. It is important to continue to discuss this with all those involved. The DSA also states that the parties themselves must contribute to enforcement. This will make more budget available.”

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