On Wednesday 21 June, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the future transparent database of content moderation decisions, in accordance with the provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 13205/26), which will come into force on 25 August.
One of the DSA’s articles stipulates that the European Commission will set up a database listing the declarations of very large online platforms and search engines concerning the reasons why they have removed or moderated certain content hosted on their services.
Through this consultation, the Commission aims to gather opinions and information in order to determine what information should be collected and what methods should be used for submitting declarations. The Commission would also like to review the methods of accessing this database.
Once the database has been established, the platforms covered by the DSA (see EUROPE 13169/8) will have to submit their declarations “as soon as possible”. This, the Commission argues, will enable “real-time” updates. The public database will also be used to provide information on the fight against illegal online content.
Opinions will be collected until 17 July. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)