Since the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in August 2023, the European Commission has brought a number of actions against the digital giants, starting with social networking platforms. The Commission is currently initiating around ten formal investigations against seven major online platforms.
Unsurprisingly, X and Meta (which includes Facebook and Instagram) are the platforms with the most complaints from the Commission.
Both are suspected by the European Union of breaching the regulation on digital services on the issue of moderation of their content and verification of facts, access to their data, transparency of their advertising and various misleading or dangerous practices against minors (see EUROPE 13316/10, EUROPE 13411/1)
According to several sources, the investigation opened in July against X is one of the most advanced at present. More than 6,000 documents were transmitted by the American platform.
According to the same sources, it is true that X has made changes to its ‘community notes’ system, making the current investigation more complex as the platform refutes the legal arguments and the analysis of the company’s structure, which determines where potential fines should be directed.
Four groups in the European Parliament (EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA) have called for a plenary debate on how the Commission plans to apply the DSA in the wake of Elon Musk’s stance and the review of Meta content moderation (see other news).
The Commission’s Executive Vice-President, Henna Virkkunen, has been invited to meet the group Presidents on Wednesday to discuss these issues, according to a parliamentary source.
TikTok, for its part, is in the Commission’s sights for mismanaging the risks to the smooth running of the online election period and failing to properly protect minors using its application (see EUROPE 13547/15, 13396/4).
AliExpress and Temu are also accused of breaching consumer protection regulations (see EUROPE 13371/24, 13516/9).
As for the various fines imposed on the major online platforms, most relate to non-compliance with data protection rules or abuse of a dominant position (see EUROPE 13479/2). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)