The EU’s new Digital Services Act and the Rest of the World
Daphne Keller of the Program on Platform Regulation writes about the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a major milestone in the history of platform regulation. Other governments are now asking themselves what the DSA’s passage means for them. The post briefly discusses that question, with a focus on platforms like Facebook or YouTube and their smaller would-be rivals. Published in Verfassungsblog.
The DSA will have major spillover effects for the rest of the world. In some cases, this will lead to real benefits for users, mostly in the form of platform features or internal systems built for the DSA, but deployed globally. For example, platforms’ more clearly articulated speech policies under Article 14 and better explanations of algorithms under Articles 27 and 38 will improve understanding both inside and outside the EU. The largest platforms will likely also globally deploy some specific user protection measures, such as improved tools for communicating with the “accusers” and the “accused” in notice and action systems. Positive changes made as part of very large online platforms’ (VLOPs’) risk mitigation efforts under Article 35 seem likely to be global, as will more indirect benefits resulting from things like improved researcher access to data under Article 40.
