The European Parliament is continuing its preparatory work for the presentation by the European Commission of its Digital Services Act (DSA). After the rapporteurs on consumer protection and civil and commercial law, Belgian MEP Kris Peeters (EPP) presented his report on fundamental rights to the committee on Monday 25 May (see EUROPE 12477/12).
Before presenting the main ideas of his report, however, the Member announced that the European Commission's initiative could be postponed until the first quarter of 2021. However, this announcement should not materialise in the revised work schedule that the Commission is set to present on 27 May, the services then told us.
Establishment of a supervisory body
In respect of content, the rapporteur defends the principle that ‘what is illegal offline, should also be illegal online’. “Let’s be clear: the current way of working doesn’t provide adequate transparency to public authorities, civil society and users on illegal and harmful content”, he said. While most MEPs approved this offline/online principle, the use of the term “dangerous content” nevertheless provoked a reaction from the Socialist shadow rapporteur, Marina Kaljurand from Estonia.
The shadow rapporteurs also qualified the rapporteur's proposal to create an “independent EU body, responsible for the effective supervision of the rules in force”. Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL, Germany) said “we have to be sure that it will not become a censorship authority”. For his part, Moritz Körner (Renew Europe, Germany) called for a “European system of digital system supervision, as it exists for financial sector”.
In the morning, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton had indicated that the DSA would deal “with the definition of the responsibilities of platforms” and would also include ”obligations for platforms that act as filters, as has been the case for telecommunications”.
See the draft report: https://bit.ly/2zl28ON (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)