TheVoiceOfJoyce

www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/25/how-the-eu-digital-services-act-affects-facebook-google-and-others

The EU will act on citizen complaints and seek to curtail the following practices:

The selling of illegal products and services

The selling of illegal content. No more Russian interference in elections or propaganda. No more hate crimes or online harms leading to child abuse. They’re safeguarding freedom of expression and data protection.

Children can not be exploited or shown images that are harmful.

No use of gender, ageism , or race to target users.

Fair advertising insisted upon, no fake deals or unfair competition.

All the Social Media Platforms are complying. Why not duplicate these regulations in the US and create a decent standard for everyone with one Truth!

1 Illegal products

Platforms will be obliged to combat the sale of illegal products and services, which will affect Amazon and Facebook Marketplace among others.

2 Illegal content

New measures are designed to crack down on illegal content – including Russian propaganda, interference with elections, hate crimes and online harms including harassment and child abuse – and ensure that fundamental rights recognised by law across Europe, including freedom of expression and data protection, are safeguarded.

3 Protection of children

For parents, unable to police everything their child sees, this cluster of rules is probably the single most important.

Platforms will be prohibited from targeting children with advertising based on their personal data or cookies.

Big social media firms will be required to redesign their systems to ensure a “high level of privacy, security and safety of minors” and prove they have done so to the European Commission.

Platforms will also have to redesign their content “recommender systems” to reduce risks to children.

They will also have to carry out a risk assessment of negative effects on children’s mental health and present it to the commission in August.

Last year, the world’s largest social media firms were accused of “monetising misery” after an inquest ruled that harmful online content contributed to the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell in the UK.

4 Racial and gender diversity

Social media companies will not be able to use sensitive personal data including race, gender and religion to target users with adverts.

5 Ban on “dark patterns”

For shoppers, this is protection from everyday interfaces used to manipulate users into buying things they don’t need or want.

An audit of 399 online shops by the commission and national consumer authorities this year found that 40% relied on “manipulative practices to exploit consumers’ vulnerabilities or trick them”.