On Tuesday 22 September, the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties adopted its position on the Digital Services Act (DSA). In their position, which defends fundamental rights, MEPs call for a harmonised notice-and-action procedure and, following the copyright saga, oppose the use of automated tools in content moderation.
Adoption of this position was followed in the late afternoon by a tweet from Commissioner Věra Jourová who, following her discussion with Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, expressed her wish to focus on how harmful content is distributed and shown to people rather than on pushing for its removal.
Content illegal but not harmful
The report prepared by Kris Peeters (EPP, Belgium) proposes tackling illegal content as a priority, arguing that “the legislation should not include any undefined concepts and terms” to avoid uncertainty. It acknowledges, however, that harmful content should be contained and therefore supports high-quality content.
The text describes recent national laws aimed at combating hate speech and disinformation, such as the NetzDG in Germany or the Avia law in France, as “concerning” and recommends a harmonised notice-and-action procedure. It opposes automated content moderation tools, which “are not capable of critical analysis”.
With regard to the removal of content, it stresses that voluntary codes of conduct and standard contractual terms of service lack adequate enforcement and notes that the removal of content deemed illegal rests with independent competent authorities.
Advertising policy, algorithms and monitoring
The text that has been adopted states that the Digital Services Act should be accompanied by guidelines on content moderation and advertising policy. With regard to algorithms, the report calls on the Commission to develop a regime based on the e-Commerce Directive that clearly frames the responsibility of service providers. It also supports “an obligation of transparency and explainability of algorithms, penalties to enforce such obligations, the possibility of human intervention and other measures such as annual independent audits and specific stress tests to assist and enforce compliance”.
The report also expresses support for an independent EU oversight structure which should be competent to impose fines, based on a percentage of the annual global turnover of the company.
Peeters' report on the link between the DSA and fundamental rights will be complemented by other reports, whose amendments will be put to the vote on 28 September: Alex Saliba's (S&D, Malta), in the IMCO committee, on the link with the internal market, and Tiemo Woelken's (S&D, Germany), in the JURI committee, on adapting commercial and civil law. The text of the report can be found at: https://bit.ly/3iWL3My (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)