Analysis - DSA Observatory

Three key points on the Delegated Act: How to preserve researcher autonomy under Article 40 DSA?

November 29, 2024/in Analysis

By Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, Co-director of the Brussels Privacy Hub, LSTS, VUB

Despite its obvious merits, it remains unclear whether the Commission’s draft delegated act on access to platform data strikes the right balance between data providers’ commercial interests and the public interest. This contribution highlights three points from the draft with recommendations to help preserve researcher autonomy.

The wait is (almost) over! First risk assessment and audit reports – what will be published, when, and the way forward

November 22, 2024/in Analysis, remaining

Magdalena Jóźwiak, Researcher, DSA Observatory, University of Amsterdam

By the end of November 2024, the VLOPs and VLOSEs first designated by the Commission on 25 April 2023, are expected to publish their risk assessment reports, providing long-awaited insights into this crucial due diligence mechanism introduced by the DSA. This post offers an overview of the information that platforms are expected to make publicly available in the coming days and examines the main activities undertaken so far by the Commission to enforce and supervise the DSA’s risk management framework.

The Regulation of Recommender Systems Under the DSA: A Transition from Default to Multiple and Dynamic Controls?

November 22, 2024/in Analysis

Urbano Reviglio (1) and Matteo Fabbri (2)
(1) Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, European University Institute, Fiesole
(2) IMT School for Advanced Studies, Lucca, Italy

In this contribution, we offer a critical overview of the interplay between the DSA requirements on the transparency and user controls for recommender systems and the design features that may be operationalized to comply with them.

Researching content moderation through platform transparency rules: the DSA as a research tool to address pro-Palestinian content censorship

October 28, 2024/in Analysis

by Valerie Bourjeily, Advanced LLM candidate in Technology Governance, University of Amsterdam, Law School Academic Excellence Track (ACeT) Research Intern, ’24

The DSA aims to help researchers in understanding platform content moderation. This blog post discusses its relevance in researching the systemic censorship of pro-Palestinian content, and content moderation practices more generally.

Embedded GenAI on Social Media: Platform Law Meets AI law

October 16, 2024/in Analysis

by Paddy Leerssen, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam 6 August 2024 Social media platforms are integrating generative AI features into their services. This post discusses how these features trigger overlapping obligations under the AI Act and the Digital Services Act. On 26 September 2024, Instagram and Facebook rolled out a new […]

The DSA’s first shadow banning case

August 6, 2024/in Analysis

by Paddy Leerssen, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam 6 August 2024 This post discusses a recent decision from the Amsterdam District Court, in which an end-user of X was awarded damages due to the platform’s undisclosed ‘shadow banning’ of their profile. An early victory for user rights: on 5 July 2024, […]

What do we talk about when we talk about risk? Risk politics in the EU’s Digital Services Act

July 31, 2024/in Analysis

by Rachel Griffin, doctoral candidate at SciencesPo 31 July 2024 What are the implications of framing normative and political questions about platform governance in terms of ‘risks’ to be managed through technocratic expertise? This article suggests that the DSA’s system of risk management obligations for the largest platforms ignores the essentially political and contestable […]

The DSA, disinformation and European elections: solutions through recommender systems?

June 17, 2024/in Analysis

The EU elections are a week behind us and we are amidst analysis of the voting results. Prior to the elections, two MEPs worried about disinformation affecting the elections. They proposed that VLOPs turn off personalised recommender systems and to explicitly stop recommender systems based on interaction. They continue by proposing four ways in which the DSA could be used to reach those goals. This blog post discusses these four proposed ways and compares the proposal to the current relevant EU policies in place.

This blog post discusses four ways to deploy the DSA as was proposed by 2 MEPs ahead of the EU elections around disinformation.

An early win for the transparency measures of the DSA. A comment on Amazon Services v. European Commission (C-638/23)

May 2, 2024/in Analysis

Beatriz Botero Arcila Assistant Professor of Law at Sciences Po Law School & Faculty Associate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University Early in April the European Court of Justice delivered an important decision regarding the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA).[1] Affirming the DSA’s objective of enhancing transparency and […]

More than an advisory group: why The European Board for Digital Services has key roles in DSA enforcement

February 23, 2024/in Analysis

Julian Jaursch Two days after the Digital Services Act (DSA) became applicable in its entirety across the EU, a new group of regulators introduced by the DSA met for the first time: On February 19, 2024, the European Board for Digital Services (“the Board”) had its inaugural meeting in Brussels. While it is billed merely […]