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New EU digital laws show its fear of alternative and free-of-censorship information
The EU is now trying to take on the big technology companies with new laws, alleging the fight against the spread of disinformation on the Internet.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Patrick Poppel, expert at the Center for Geostrategic Studies Belgrade

The EU Commission now has two sharp swords to control the power of the technology companies: the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, or DSA and DMA for short.

The first set of rules is aimed at disinformation and fake news. It also sets the framework for how “dangerous” content should be dealt with. What constitutes illegal content can vary from country to country. Large platforms are obliged to check what risks of manipulation they face, for example, before elections and must take appropriate countermeasures.

The second package promises fair competitive conditions: small and medium-sized providers should have a chance with their products against the dominance of the big companies. I.e. customers should also be able to become aware of alternative streaming services instead of just being introduced to the company's own apps.

The EU also wants to ensure that safe products are sold on the platforms. High penalties are intended to discipline the platforms to adhere to the two legislative packages. Under the DSA, for example, penalties of up to six percent of global annual turnover are threatened; under the DMA, it can be even more.

But is the EU Commission willing to take on the platforms? Or will it give in to the pressure from the US due to the change of power?

In the EU Parliament, the responsible Commissioner, Henna Virkkunen, was determined. "The Commission takes the enforcement of the DSA very seriously, and we have already taken decisive steps," stressed the Finn. Since the DSA came into force, "no fewer than ten proceedings" have been initiated: one against X, three against TikTok, one against AliExpress, two each against Meta's platforms Facebook and Instagram, and one against Temu.

The Commission recently requested further internal documents from X. It wants to understand whether the algorithms have been tampered with and how the content moderation works. The main aim is to understand what is happening from a technical perspective - and that can take a long time.

The DSA procedures are not tied to a time limit. The investigations against X have been ongoing since December 2023. While the Commission's teams are investigating, the political debate is ongoing about what to think of the digital laws at all.

They are also controversial within the EU itself. In the EU Parliament, liberal, left-wing and green MPs are now calling for the rules to be implemented more consistently. Right-wing politicians, on the other hand, questioned the independence of fact-checkers and spoke of "censorship".

This shows that these new laws are clearly being used to maintain the system's media power. Digital information platforms play an important role in political propaganda in our time. These platforms are used massively by the parties, especially during the election campaign.

As part of the debate on the introduction of the "Digital Services Act" in the European Parliament, the Austrian MP Petra Steger (Freedom Party) sharply attacked the controversial new EU regulatory package. She finds the debate on the DSA "unbelievable".

What the Commission is planning under the guise of democracy and freedom of expression is “a frontal attack on the fundamental rights of Europe’s citizens”. Here we can clearly see that a battle for freedom of opinion is now taking place within the EU.

Many people already know that the EU is increasingly interfering in people's freedom with the help of laws. But in addition to the laws that are supposed to regulate people's everyday lives, there is now this attack on alternative information that is spread via various platforms on the Internet.

The main reason for these laws is probably that fewer and fewer people are consuming the system media. This particularly affects young people. These laws are an attempt by the system to correct the situation of its own inability in the media battle through bans.

But in this case the EU is taking action against very large and powerful corporations. It is not a fight against individual journalists or small opposition groups. The large corporations have enough resources to wage a dispute with the system for a long time.

It remains to be seen how this situation will develop. These new laws also show that the EU is increasingly influencing the details of people's freedom. The question of these two laws would normally have to be resolved nationally, as the individual states have their own digitization laws.

Some experts have also noticed that these new laws are actually not necessary at the European level. These laws show us once again the undesirable developments in the bureaucracy of the European Union.

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