digital services act

More than a dozen of the world's biggest tech companies face unprecedented legal scrutiny, as the European Union's sweeping Digital Services Act (DSA) imposes new rules on content moderation, user privacy and transparency this month.Across the EU, a host of internet giants – including Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms, Chinese-owned video app TikTok and a handful of Google services – are adapting to the new obligations, including preventing harmful content from spreading, banning or limiting certain user-targeting…

The EU added Meta and Snap to a growing list of tech companies it is probing to see how they are complying with a new law meant to stop illegal content online. The European Commission said it has sent formal requests for information to Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, and Snap, which runs the Snapchat image and messaging app, on what measures they have taken to protect minors online. They have until December 1 to reply.The probes are only an initial stage under the EU's Digital Services Act, which came into force…

Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok has voluntarily agreed to a "stress test" to prepare for the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on Tuesday.Under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), Alphabet unit Google, Meta and other large online platforms will risk hefty fines if they do not control illegal content.TikTok will also be subject to the DSA rules, which require companies to manage risk, conduct external and independent auditing, share data with authorities and…

Amazon has launched a legal challenge against its inclusion in a group of companies subject to tough European Union online content rules, in a move that technology experts have said may prompt other tech giants to follow suit.Amazon's challenge at the Luxembourg-based General Court, Europe's second highest, is the first by a Big Tech company and came two weeks after German online retailer Zalando sued the European Commission over the same issue.Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force last year, 19…

Stung by criticism of tardy privacy investigations and the Irish privacy regulator's outsized role in overseeing Big Tech, the European Commission on Tuesday announced new rules to help watchdogs work on cross-border cases at a faster clip.Critics say investigations take too long and fines are too low to deter privacy breaches by Big Tech companies, undermining the goal of landmark EU rules known as the General Data Protection Regulation which came into force in 2018. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), the EU…

The debate about who can say what online is heating up once more globally. Twitter, the favoured network of politicians and the press, is under the mercurial new management of Mr Musk, a self-declared free-speech absolutist who has restored the accounts of previously banned users like Mr Trump. Meta, a larger rival, is reportedly readying a text-based network of its own, to launch this summer. Social-media platforms face a test over the next 18 months as America’s presidential election approaches, one of the…

European policymakers, last year, published the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to which, technology companies such as Twitter, Google, Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Microsoft, among other giants will have to do more to tackle disinformation online. Twitter has now decided to leave the European Union's (EU) disinformation code and EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton has sent a warning to the social media company."Twitter leaves EU voluntary code of practice against disinformation. But obligations remain.…

Twitter has been on a job cuts spree ever since Elon Musk acquired the company in October 2022. The layoffs at Twitter started almost on the day Musk joined Twitter full time. The first to go included almost the entire top brass of Twitter including CEO Parag Agarwal. Just a week later Twitter slashed its workforce by almost half. Post then, there have been several other rounds of layoffs at the microblogging platform. Twitter officially has never made a comment on the job cuts. Now reports suggest that the company may…

The European Union told Elon Musk to hire more human moderators and fact-checkers to review posts on Twitter, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing four people familiar with talks between Musk, Twitter executives and regulators in Brussels.The demand complicates Musk's efforts to reorganise the loss-making business he acquired for $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,37,465 crore) in October. He has slashed more than half of Twitter's 7,500 staff, including the entire trust and safety teams in some offices, while seeking…

The European Union told Elon Musk to hire more human moderators and fact-checkers to review posts on Twitter, the Financial Times reported , citing four people familiar with talks between Musk, Twitter executives and regulators in Brussels. The demand complicates Musk's efforts to reorganize the loss-making business he acquired for $44 billion in October. He has slashed more than half of Twitter's 7,500 staff, including the entire trust and safety teams in some offices, while seeking cheaper methods to monitor tweets, the…