European Parliament votes to overhaul business model of internet platforms
Digital Services Act
The reports on the EU Digital Services Act have been adopted by a large majority. MEPs voted for the European Commission to provide a clear legal framework for online platforms, to set out guidelines for dealing with indications of illegal content and to end the arbitrary blocking and deletion of content by online platforms. With the digital services package, the European Commission wants to update the e-commerce directive from 2000 and establish additional rules for market-dominant digital companies such as Facebook and Google. The legislative proposal is expected in early December.
Marcel Kolaja MEP, Member of the Pirate Party Greens/EFA coordinator in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO), who was the IMCO shadow on the opinions from the Legal Affairs committee, comments:
"The European Parliament supports our demands to protect privacy online, to guarantee the right to anonymity and to limit the market power of tech monopolies by adopting rules on interoperability. Facebook and Twitter must give up their communication monopoly and allow communication with users of alternative platforms, and allow contacts to be maintained when switching between providers.
“People have to take back control over their communication, their content must not be filtered, and they have to understand how their content and the content they see is being moderated and prioritised online. Only this way can we have a healthy open public discussion and fight back hatred and disinformation."
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