American whistleblower Frances Haugen, who revealed major problems with Facebook’s content moderation, met with MEPs on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) on Monday 8 November.
This hearing—in association with five other European Parliament committees—was an opportunity to discuss the impact of algorithms on users in a context where the EU is working on legislation on the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 12821/8) and on digital markets (DMA).
“The DSA could be the gold standard for the whole world, an inspiration for all countries, including my own, the US, with new rules. The execution of threats must be a reality, otherwise we will miss this unique opportunity”, said Ms Haugen by way of introduction.
Questioned for several hours by MEPs, the whistleblower also insisted on the need for a “dynamic and evolving” system. “If you put up a barrier, they will go around it. We must continue to evolve as the systems themselves evolve”, she replied in response to concerns expressed by several MEPs about the ability of legislators not to be overtaken by technological advances.
Ms Haugen said that the DSA should be based on an approach that combines a risk assessment of access to the data flow, the establishment of “global standards for businesses”, while avoiding the “dangers” of “legal loopholes and exemptions”.
On this last point, the former Facebook employee also called for particular care to be taken to ensure that the DSA does not make “solutions that platforms could provide illegal”.
“The risk would be to damage the tool”, she added, before adding, “transparency must go hand in hand with the possibility of carrying out the measures”.
Personalising responsibilities
In addition, the issue of the responsibility of social networks—led by Facebook—was also addressed by Ms Haugen, following questions from several MEPs.
For the whistleblower, every change made to systems by the social networks themselves should be attributable to a person—or group—within the network, so that it is easier to “establish legal links” between problematic situations and the actors behind them.
In terms of cooperation between Member States, the issue of national regulators was also raised several times.
“I will be very frank: the number of experts able to explain these algorithms is very low, as they are often trained on the job by the companies themselves. If you delegate this functionality to 27 Member States, you will not be able to create sufficient critical mass”, she warned.
Furthermore, the whistleblower considered that artificial intelligence —which is also one of the important files the Parliament is working on (see EUROPE 12827/10)—could not be considered as a “solution” to analyse problematic content and documents.
Earlier in the day, Ms Haugen also had discussions with Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton and Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Denmark), rapporteur on the DSA in the European Parliament.
“Europe is determined to regulate what still looks like a digital Wild West. Speed is of the essence: we need to adopt the DSA/DMA package in the first half of 2022. We must also remain extremely ambitious in our response. The increased lobbying efforts we have seen are futile—we will not let corporate interests interfere with the best interests of the European people”, commented Mr Breton on the sidelines of the discussion. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)