The European Parliament’s regulations and policy-making decisions on technology and the internet have unique influence across the globe. With great influence comes great responsibility. We believe the European Parliament (EP) has a duty to set an example with the Digital Services Act (DSA), the first major overhaul of European internet regulations in 20 years. The EP should show that the DSA can address tough challenges—hate speech, misinformation, and users’ lack of control on big platforms—without compromising human rights protections, free speech and expression rights, and users’ privacy and security.
Balancing these principles is complex, but imperative. A step in the wrong direction could reverberate around the world, affecting fundamental rights beyond European Union borders. To this end, 12 civil society organizations from around the globe, standing for transparency, accountability, and human rights-centered lawmaking, have formed the Digital Services Act Human Rights Alliance to establish and promote a world standard for internet platform governance. The Alliance is comprised of digital and human rights advocacy organization representing diverse communities across the globe, including in the Arab world, Europe, United Nations member states, Mexico, Syria, and the U.S.
In its first action towards this goal, the Alliance today is calling on the EP to embrace a human rights framework for the DSA and take steps to ensure that it protects access to information for everyone, especially marginalized communities, rejects inflexible and unrealistic take down mandates that lead to over-removals and impinge on free expression, and strengthen mandatory human rights impact assessments so issues like faulty algorithm decision-making is identified before people get hurt.
This call to action follows a troubling round of amendments approved by an influential EP committee that crossed red lines protecting fundamental rights and freedom of expression. EFF and other civil society organizations told the EP prior to the amendments that the DSA offers an unparalleled opportunity to address some of the internet ecosystem’s most pressing challenges and help better protect fundamental rights online—if done right.
So, it was disappointing to see the EP committee take a wrong turn, voting in September to limit liability exemptions for internet companies that perform basic functions of content moderation and content curation, force companies to analyze and indiscriminately monitor users’ communication or use upload filters, and bestow special advantages, not available to ordinary users, on politicians and popular public figures treated as trusted flaggers.
In a joint letter, the Alliance today called on the EU lawmakers to take steps to put the DSA back on track:
- Avoid disproportionate demands on smaller providers that would put users’ access to information in serious jeopardy.
- Reject legally mandated strict and short time frames for content removals that will lead to removals of legitimate speech and opinion, impinging rights to freedom of expression.
- Reject mandatory reporting obligations to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), especially without appropriate safeguards and transparency requirements.
- Prevent public authorities, including LEAs, from becoming trusted flaggers and subject conditions for becoming trusted flaggers to regular reviews and proper public oversight.
- Consider mandatory human rights impact assessments as the primary mechanism for examining and mitigating systemic risks stemming from platforms' operations.
For the DSA Human Rights Alliance Joint Statement:
https://www.eff.org/document/dsa-human-rights-alliance-joint-statement
For more on the DSA:
https://www.eff.org/issues/eu-policy-principles
