The European Commission passed two bills that will regulate online content like never before, including censoring speech.
Protocol reported that the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) will take effect next year. The DSA will target “illegal” content online, while the DMA will focus on regulating Big Tech giants.
Last month, NewsBusters reported that the goal of EU leaders is to weed out so-called “fake news” on social media as well as its attempts to urge the United States to follow suit.
“To respond to disinformation effectively, there is a need for country- and language-specific data,” Financial Times quoted EU Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová as saying at the time. “We know disinformation is different in every country, and the big platforms will now have to provide meaningful data that would allow to understand better the situation on the country level.”
NewsBusters also reported that so far, the U.S. government seems opposed to both measures.
"DMA would require gatekeepers under certain circumstances to provide competitors with information that may be protected by intellectual property and trade secret law," a U.S. document reported by Reuters said at the time.
"'However, the DMA does not include specific language relevant to the protection of intellectual property, including trade secrets. As a result, there is a concern that the DMA may override existing protections for intellectual property rights, including protection for trade secrets, in EU law under certain circumstances."
The EU measures have already influenced Big Tech companies.
Earlier in the year, NewsBusters reported that the DMA would force Apple to allow third-party app stores to operate on its products like the iPhone and iPad.
“We believe that the owner of a smartphone should have the freedom to choose how to use it,” European Commission spokesperson Johannes Bahrke told The Verge at the time. “This freedom includes being able to opt for alternative sources of apps on your smartphone. With the [Digital Markets Act], a smartphone owner would still be able to enjoy safe and secure services of the default app store on their smart phones. On top of that, if a user so chooses, the DMA would allow a smartphone owner to also opt for other safe app stores.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your local representative and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
