The Digital Services Act: how it will impact the internet
The internet is an astounding box of tools through which we connect, inform ourselves and communicate
even when miles apart. But in many ways, hate speech, disinformation, and harmful content havebecome like CO2 - the pollution of our digital spaces. The Digital Services Act (DSA) was passed with ahuge majority in the European Parliament on 5 July 2022, setting industry standards that will be thedigital equivalent of the Paris Agreement for Climate Change.
For years, Avaaz has been providing lawmakers with data and analysis evidencing the harms inherent to
the platforms’ operating systems, shining a light on the scope and the scale of harmful content that wasable to thrive on these platforms. Avaaz welcomes this regulation, and hopes that the EU can now act on
the crises that whistleblowers like Frances Haugen have been long warning us need urgent action.

1) It will help make social media algorithms less toxic
Social media platforms are not neutral platforms, they use algorithms to select the content they think will
grab our attention and keep us on their services. The longer we spend there, the more ads we see, andthe more money they make. The problem is, that the best kind of attention-grabbing content is often
content that provokes an intense, emotional reaction, like disinformation or hateful speech. And, as it ‘s
the algorithm’s job to keep us wired in, it then amplifies this harmful, polarising content (see Avaazreporting).
However, the DSA will oblige platforms to prioritise our fundamental human rights in their service
design and businesses:●Risk Assessment and Mitigation of harm: Platforms will have to scrutinise how their services,including algorithms, can damage individual human rights and negatively impact society byidentifying, assessing and mitigating any risks (Arts 26 & 27).

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Better moderation of harmful content like disinformation: Platforms will have to publish
annual reports about the measures they take and policies they implement to moderate content(Art 13).

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Co-regulatory backstop: Codes of Conduct can be adopted setting standards and KPIs toaddress harms and these Codes can be updated to keep pace with innovation (Art 35).

2) It will force platforms to be MUCH more transparent
Until now, private companies have decided the rules that govern online public debate and have been
doing so without meaningful transparency. For example, overnight, they could decide to ban (or not toban) politicians, presidents, or a specific post, without having to explain why. This was a considerable risk
to freedom of expression, but the DSA should change that.

●Civil society organisations like Avaaz now has rights to see Big tech’s data 1: For the firsttime in EU regulatory history, civil society - the early alarm system in so many online scandals should be able to see Big Tech’s data, which will facilitate detection of harms (Art 31). We willkeep our eye on how the new rules develop to ensure sufficient access for civil society,academics and independent auditors.

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Regulators and researchers, including CSOs, will also be able to inspect advertisement
placement and targeting to assess if these systems contribute to societal risks, i.e. promoting or
funding disinformation (see Avaaz reporting).

●Easier for us to understand: platforms will have to explain their terms and conditions in auser-friendly manner, also intelligible to minors, and in their native language (Arts 12, 13 & 34).

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Transparent content moderation: The platform must explain to users why they take action on
their content, e.g. removing their post (Art 15).
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Right to complain, appeal and get external redress: If a user is dissatisfied with theinternal complaint-handling process, they can take it up with an out-of-court disputesettlement body (Art 18) or the Digital Services Coordinator in the country they live in.

3) It will reduce the risk of manipulative practices
The cycle of data collection begins with your first click. Online services use this data to build a profile
about you and your preferences. The purpose is to target you with advertising. Why is this a problem?
Because such precise targeting can be exploited to sow division between communities over religion,
race, and politics or manipulate the vulnerable into making choices that fool them or even harm them.
The DSA does not ban all data targeting, but creates transparency about how Big Tech makes moneyout of us, for a fairer, more open system with:1●

Honesty about algorithms: platforms must explain how their recommender systems decide
what content we do and don’t see in - like what they push into our our newsfeeds (Art 24a).

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Greater control of our privacy: We will be able to choose how content is recommended to us,including a right not to be recommended content based on our personal data (Art 29) and foradvertising - we get better transparency about online advertising to make more informed
decisions about how data is used for targeting.

●New protections from exploitation include:●Protection for children: platforms are prohibited from targeting minors with advertisingbased on data collected during their online activity (“profiling”).

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Protection of sensitive data: platforms are prohibited from targeting anyone based onsensitive personal data, e.g. religion, political views or sexuality, unless the user consents
to this (Recital 52).

See whistleblower Frances Haugen’s explanation of how civil society oversight can save lives.

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Deceptive design is tackled: prohibition of the so-called “dark patterns” that trick a
service user into an action they would not usually take, e.g. when it is more difficult tocancel a subscription than to sign up in the first place (Art 23a).

4) Real sanctions for non-compliance
The European Commission will monitor the biggest platforms to ensure they comply with the DSA.
●Fines: Platforms must provide annual reports that the Digital Service Coordinator will makepublicly available. If these platforms fail to assess and control the harms they cause, they can be
fined up to 6% of their global income (Art 42).

●Regional bans: In extreme cases, when platforms repeatedly fail to comply with the DSA and arefound to be causing serious harm, they could even be temporarily banned from operating in theaffected Member State (Art 41).

So, do we have a Paris Agreement for the Internet?
The 2015 Paris Agreement laid out a framework to tackle climate change - Avaaz believes that the DSA
has the potential to be a similarly groundbreaking agreement: confronting the global issues of digital
toxicity and creating a global gold standard for a better and safer internet for all.
But social media platforms will not change overnight. The DSA will take time to come into force and will
require a profound cultural change in Silicon Valley. The Commission has spearheaded a new revised
Code of Practice on Disinformation in which Avaaz has been a crucial expert voice. This and other codes
must ensure that the Platforms follow the spirit of this new law, with sanctions to follow if they don't.