The News Media Alliance applauds the European Union for reaching an interinstitutional agreement on the long-awaited Digital Services Act (DSA), aimed at making the online ecosystem safer for Europeans. The DSA includes measures aimed at reducing the dissemination of illegal and harmful content, services and goods online to increasing protections for minors, banning targeted advertising based on sensitive data, and addressing the use of dark patterns to influence consumer choice.
Alliance Executive Vice President & General Counsel Danielle Coffey said, “The Alliance applauds the principle of ‘what is illegal offline, should be illegal online.’ The European Union is leading the way in protecting consumers and holding big tech companies to the same standard as everyone else. Taken together, the DSA and the Digital Markets Act go a long way in rebalancing the online ecosystem and leveling the playing field between news publishers and the dominant online platforms. Healthy democracies rely on high-quality news and information, and we hope that special attention is paid to European publishers’ ability to produce and monetize their journalism throughout the implementation and enforcement of both the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act.”
The regulation, first proposed by the European Commission in 2020, must now be finalized and formally approved by the Council and the Parliament. The DSA will become directly applicable across the European Union 15 months following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
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Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
