European Union officials unveiled two proposals that aim to update regulations on technology companies yesterday. The proposed rules cover a wide range of topics including data privacy, content moderation, and competition, and will now undergo a broader review process that could take several years to complete. The announcement comes amid recently-intensifying regulatory scrutiny on technology platforms, including US-based antitrust cases brought against Facebook and Google this year.
More context: The first of the two rules, the Digital Services Act, aims to enhance user safety protections, increase transparency into how tech company algorithms work, and introduce new enforcement mechanisms. The second rule, the Digital Markets Act, applies only to “gatekeeper” platforms (such as Amazon or Google) and focuses on competition-related topics including data use, interoperability, and self-preferencing.
Extra: Here’s the full statement from the European Commission.
The New Paper
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