The Digital Services Act (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.

The DSA Observatory provides independent scientific input during the DSA debate and to engage different stakeholders on the DSA proposals, in particular on the challenge of confronting platform power from a fundamental rights and democratic values perspective. To achieve these goals, the Observatory will bring together a broad network of platform regulation experts in academia and other relevant stakeholders, including civil society organisations, policymakers and regulators.

The DSA Observatory will closely follow the DSA process and generate regular outputs on relevant developments, including through dissemination activities, workshops and expert meetings.

NEWS

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ANALYSIS

The Missing Metrics in DSA Content Moderation Transparency

By Max Davy, Oxford Internet Institute

The Digital Services Act makes platform transparency reporting mandatory and standardised, but the metrics it requires still fall short of what is needed for real accountability. Counts of removals and appeals alone cannot tell us whether content moderation systems are accurate, proportionate, or effective, making the absence of evaluation metrics such as precision and recall increasingly difficult to justify under the DSA’s risk-based logic. While these metrics are unlikely to surface in baseline transparency reports under Articles 15 and 24, the post argues they may yet emerge through heightened scrutiny of the largest online platforms and search engines (VLOPSEs), as regulatory expectations take shape through enforcement, systemic risk reporting, audits, and related obligations.

What are DSA audits doing for systemic risk enforcement? The case of X

By John Albert, DSA Observatory

Of the nineteen service providers initially designated as VLOPSEs under the DSA, X’s first compliance audit stands apart. Its auditor, FTI Consulting, broke from industry peers by offering relatively critical opinions — including findings that were unfavourable to the platform on obligations under active Commission investigation. How did X respond? Rather than work toward implementing the auditor’s recommendations, X simply reshuffled the deck: it went out and hired a new auditor (BDO). The move raises a deeper question about what the DSA audit regime is actually doing — and how seriously the Commission treats audits as part of systemic-risk enforcement, which, in principle, relies on auditors to provide an additional, independent layer of scrutiny. 

Waiting for the DSA’s Big Enforcement Moment

By Magdalena Jóźwiak, DSA Observatory (University of Amsterdam)   This blog post explores the issue of DSA enforcement by the European Commission, focusing on the law’s systemic risk management provisions. It first briefly sketches the Commission’s role in regulatory oversight of the systemic risk framework and then sums up enforcement efforts to date, considering also […]

Applicable Law in Out-of-Court Dispute Settlement: Three Vertigos under Article 21 of the DSA

By Lorenzo Gradoni (University of Luxembourg) and Pietro Ortolani (Radboud University Nijmegen)

Article 21 of the DSA entrusts out-of-court dispute settlement bodies with reviewing platforms’ content moderation decisions. But which law should guide them? This post examines three options: terms of service, contract law, and human rights. Each option brings challenges, inducing its own kind of Hitchcockian vertigo. A human-rights-based approach may strike a better balance, reconciling the efficiency of ODS bodies, fairness for users, and the readiness of platforms to cooperate.

EVENTS

The Digital Services Act Observatory at the Amsterdam Law School will be hosting events on a variety of topics which are relevant to the DSA discussion and process. Information on these events will be posted here.

Please get in touch if you would like to share your ideas for a DSA-related event or discuss your research at one of our events.

ABOUT

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, Ilaria Buri, Paddy Leerssen, dr. Ronan Fahy, prof. Natali Helberger, prof. Martin Senftleben, dr. João Pedro Quintais and Doris Bujis.

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 was launched thanks to the funding of the Open Society Foundations.

CONTACT

The DSA Observatory team can be reached by email at:

j.v.j.vanhoboken@uva.nl or i.buri@uva.nl

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