On Wednesday 2 July, the European Commission adopted a delegated act under the Digital Services Act (DSA), designed to guarantee researchers “unprecedented” access to the internal data of the nineteen ‘very large online platforms’ (‘VLOPs‘) designated by the Regulation (namely AliExpress, Amazon, Apple, Pornhub, Booking, Google, Shein, LinkedIn, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, XNXX, Snapchat, Stripchat, TikTok, X, Temu, XVideos and Wikipedia).
The new rules should enable researchers - who must be approved by a national DSA coordinator - to carry out “independent research into systemic risks and the mitigation measures” put in place by the platforms.
In particular, the delegated act clarifies the procedures for sharing data with approved researchers, including data formats and documentation requirements.
The national digital services coordinator will be responsible for “determining the technical, legal and organisational arrangements” that the platform will have to use to give researchers access to the data, based on the information already provided.
This measure complements the obligations already linked to the DSA concerning transparency and access to platform data.
The European Parliament and the EU Council now have three months to examine the delegated act. The first researchers will be able to express their interest once it has been published in the Official Journal of the EU.
See the delegated act: https://aeur.eu/f/ho7 (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)