By John Albert, DSA Observatory
On December 17th, the Commission opened formal proceedings against TikTok to investigate whether the platform diligently managed electoral risks in the Romanian context. This case demonstrates two gears of regulatory action under the DSA: the slow, methodical pace of analyzing systemic risks and setting standards, and the fast, politically charged scramble to respond to high-profile crises.
By John Albert, DSA Observatory
Recently published risk assessment reports may offer new insights into how the largest online platforms think about and manage risks. But the first rollout has already raised questions about publication timelines, redactions, and formats. This post aims to clarify some of these ambiguities, and points toward upcoming regulatory guidance on risk assessments and opportunities for stakeholder engagement.
By John Albert, DSA Observatory
This post shares insights from a DSA Observatory workshop held on 18 November 2024, where researchers and legal experts met to discuss what’s new in the draft delegated act, what’s missing, and how to approach the Commission’s call for feedback.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]