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admin2025-07-09 15:06:532025-07-11 09:46:01The DSA and Platform Regulation Conference 2026
The Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory
The “Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory” is a project run by the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam, which acts as a hub of expertise on the new EU Digital Services Act Regulation.
The DSA Observatory provides independent scholarly input and facilitates discussions regarding this important legislation, its implementation and enforcement. In particular, the DSA Observatory focuses on fundamental rights and democratic values as a means to confront platform power.
Launched in January 2021, the Observatory has followed the DSA political process closely. It engages with different stakeholders and brings together a broad network of platform regulation experts from academia, civil society, and government.
The project generates regular analysis on the DSA and relevant developments, including blog posts, policy reports, academic articles, and events including expert workshops, panels and conferences.
About The Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory
The DSA Observatory
The Digital Services Act (DSA) Observatory is a new project run by the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam, which kicked-off in January 2021. The DSA Observatory acts as a hub of expertise with respect to the “Digital Services Act” package presented by the European Commission in December 2020.
Project team
The core project team for the DSA Observatory is composed of prof. Joris van Hoboken, Paddy Leerssen, John Albert, Magdalena Jóźwiak, dr. Ronan Fahy, prof. Natali Helberger, and dr. João Pedro Quintais
Funding and collaboration with the Digital Legal Lab
The DSA Observatory is part of the “Digital Transformations of Decision-Making” research initiative of the Amsterdam Law School and contributes to the activities of the Digital Legal Lab, an interuniversity research centre on law and digital technologies run by a research network between four Dutch universities: Tilburg University, the University of Amsterdam, Radboud University Nijmegen and Maastricht University. This joint research initiative, the Digital Legal Studies Sector Plan for legal research is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). The DSA Observatory has received funding from the Open Society Foundations and from the Civitates initiative (“Healthy Digital Public Sphere” programme) and the DSA Research Network (a collaboration with the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and the Hans-Bredow-Institut), funded by Stiftung Mercator.
Where we focus on …
Europe / Brussels
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Justice
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Privacy
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Politics
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Research
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People
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Events
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admin2024-03-19 12:59:532024-03-19 12:59:53Summer course 2024 on “European Platform Regulation”
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admin2023-07-07 14:41:352023-12-07 12:15:26The DSA and Platform Regulation Conference 2024Contact
The DSA Observatory team can be reached by email at:
dsaobservatory-ivir@uva.nl
Investigation: Platforms still use manipulative design despite DSA rules
/in AnalysisBy Chitra Mohanlal, Tech Researcher at Bits of Freedom
Our recent investigation into a selection of Very Large Online Platforms reveals multiple potential breaches of the DSA relating to manipulative design (Article 25), recommender system transparency (Article 27), and the obligation to offer alternative recommender systems (Article 38). The report explains and illustrates several types of manipulative design practices on platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Shein, Zalando and Booking.com. These findings can be used to support enforcement actions under the DSA.
What does the DSA mean for online advertising and adtech?
/in AnalysisBy Pieter Wolters & Frederik Zuiderveen
What does the Digital Services Act (DSA) mean for online advertising and adtech (advertising technology)? This blogpost, based on a new research paper, explores that question. The most controversial insight is that ad networks and some other adtech companies must — based on an analysis of the DSA’s definitions — be considered ‘platforms’ in the sense of the DSA. Hence, they must comply with the DSA’s general rules for platforms.
The Commission’s approach to age assurance: Do the DSA Guidelines on protecting minors online strike the right balance?
/in AnalysisBy Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, (Brussels Privacy Hub, LSTS, VUB)
The European Commission’s guidelines on protecting minors online take important steps toward building a comprehensive list of relevant service design and organizational measures that are relevant under Article 28(1) DSA. But in doing so, they also risk oversimplifying a complex regulatory trade-off that underlies the deployment of age assurance methods. This blog post argues that the guidelines overstate the proportionality of age verification and age estimation methods, sideline key data protection concerns, and miss the opportunity to articulate the implications of a rights-based, privacy-preserving design for all users.