[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] The European Union (EU) has reached a final agreement on a new law that strengthens the response of global big tech companies such as Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) to harmful content.
According to major foreign media including the Financial Times (FT) on the 23rd, the EU finalized the Digital Services Act (DSA) at a meeting held in Brussels.
The law aims to address the social harms of social media, such as child pornography and hate speech against certain groups. Big tech companies will be required to more actively monitor illegal content on their platforms, and failure to do so may result in fines worth billions of dollars.
Accordingly, companies must establish new policies and procedures to remove hate speech, terrorist propaganda, as well as expressions deemed illegal by individual European countries.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described it as a "historic agreement," stating, "What is illegal offline will also be illegal online."
The law targets all internet-related companies within the EU but is expected to be applied more strictly to large-scale operators with more than 45 million monthly users. Violations of the law could result in fines of up to 6% of global revenue, and the law may be enforced as early as this year.
As the social impact of social media grows, the EU is strengthening regulations on these big tech companies. Last month, it also prepared the Digital Markets Act, which allows regulatory authorities to broadly respond to anti-competitive practices by big tech companies, including dominance over app stores, online advertising, and internet shopping.
The EU has been negotiating policies to crack down on large corporations for anti-competitive behavior, the influence of social media on elections, and privacy violations.
In particular, in light of the Ukraine war and the pandemic, the EU is considering measures to compel internet companies to respond swiftly during national security or health crises.
This includes preventing the spread of propaganda from specific countries on social media during wartime and prohibiting the sale of fake medicines online during the pandemic.
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