New obligations for digital services and platforms, the risks faced by online users and how to regulate big tech are among the issues addressed in two separate votes in the Committees on Internal Market (IMCO) and Legal Affairs (JURI) in the European Parliament in Brussels. Both legislative initiatives aim to influence the content of the Commission's Digital Services Act package, due by the end of the year.

digital agenda (T)

Brussels

Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

meeting

Committee on Legal Affairs

WÖLKEN, Tiemo (S&D, DE)

AGIUS SALIBA, Alex (S&D, MT)

digital services act (T)

Final vote on Digital Services Act (adapting commercial and civil law rules for commercial entities operating online): view of the meeting room and statement by Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D,DE), Rapporteur

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&#214;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), [28 September] The measures proposed in the rapport can be divided into three main pillars. So the first pillar is protecting fundamental rights online. The second one is measures against disinformation and fake news. And the third one is data protection.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&#214;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), [28 September] By removing content that is not illegal is by far no longer a trivial matter, but grave restrictions of freedom of speech, especially during this pandemic. We have all realized that online interaction is no longer just a bit of fun, but more and more on the main stage of our daily lives. Over blocking is therefore a very, very large risk of freedom of expression online, which results from the current regulation situation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), [28 September] The current framework of rules, therefore, needs to catch up. It needs to catch up with new realities that we are facing and its needs. It needs to ensure that public interests, fundamental rights and the users and consumers rights are protected in the new digital realities.

SOUNDBITE (English), Alex AGIUS SALIBA (S&amp;D, MT), [28 September] Manipulation practices of targeting people because of their age, because of their gender, because of their religion, because of their sexual orientation, because of the colour of their skin, or simply because they have been identified by algorithms as insecure, as vulnerable, as worthless. This must stop. Big companies such as Facebook, such as YouTube, have been more than once under fire for such practices. To this end, we are proposing that consumers are always informed if A.I. enables the services and that there is oversight and also risk assessments of algorithms.

Cutaways of the JURI committee meeting (7 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&#214;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), I am really happy that today the Legal Affairs Committee adopted my rapport with suggestions on the Digital Services Act (DSA). For me, it is really important to see that we are making sure that there is a strong protection of fundamental rights of European citizens and we make sure that the personal data is safe. In addition, we are calling for procedural routes on the notice and action system. So we are setting clear rules for the platforms instead of putting them in charge of policing the Internet. And then we have clear access to justice for European citizens by dispute settlement body. And finally, we are suggesting a European entity to monitor and enforce the rules. I am sure that users should be able to decide which content they are shown on social media platforms.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&#214;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), By doing this, we are freeing users from profit driven curation algorithms and we can slow the virus spread of harmful but still legal content. So I am really happy that the colleagues and the committee are backing my approach to tackle the problem at added root by regulating harmful business models in the Internet.

Digital devices' users illustration footage  (5 shots)