TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Amazon are under increasing pressure from European authorities as proposed regulations to limit the influence of digital companies were pushed by London and Brussels on Tuesday.
They are among the 19 largest online platforms and search engines that the executive arm of the European Union said must fulfill additional obligations for removing illegal content and misinformation and protecting users under the historic digital rules of the 27-nation bloc that go into effect later this year.
In the meantime, the U.K. government presented a draft bill that would give regulators additional authority to safeguard consumers from online fraud and false reviews and foster digital competition.
With regard to efforts to limit the influence of social media corporations and other digital platforms, the improvements further reinforce Europe’s position as a worldwide leader.
According to Commissioner Thierry Breton in an online briefing, TikTok would permit representatives of the European Commission to conduct a “stress test” of its systems to make sure they abide by the Digital Services Act.
When they first met this year in Brussels, he brought up the concept to Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok.
Breton said, “I’m happy that they came back to us saying they are interested,” but added that he’s waiting on Chew to set a date. A request for comment from TikTok received no response.
Breton announced that he and his team will visit Twitter’s San Francisco offices at the end of June to conduct the voluntary mock exercise. Twitter has already agreed to a stress test. Breton didn’t specify the specifics of the test.
The largest internet platforms must begin providing European users with more power on August 25 by making it simpler to report unlawful content, such as hate speech, and by providing more details on why their systems recommend specific content.
There are guidelines for artificial intelligence-generated content, such as deep fake movies and synthetic images, which must be explicitly identified when they appear in search results, according to Breton.
In order to “prevent algorithmic amplification of disinformation,” big tech companies will also need to update their systems, he added, expressing particular concern for Facebook’s content moderation tools in the run-up to the September elections in Slovakia.
“Meta needs to carefully investigate its system and fix it where needed ASAP,” he said, referring to the fact that Facebook has now been classified as a very significant internet platform.
The parent corporation of Facebook declared its support for the EU’s proposed Digital Services Act.
While highlighting its initiatives on content moderation and media literacy in Slovakia, Meta stated, “We take considerable steps to counteract the spread of bad content on Facebook and Instagram across the EU. While we do this year-round, we recognize that election seasons and times of crisis, like the ongoing war in Ukraine, are particularly crucial.
Up to 6% of a corporation’s annual global revenue, or billions of dollars, might be fined for violations, and the company could be barred from doing business in the EU altogether.
The list of very large online platforms maintained by the European Commission is restricted to those with at least 45 million users in the continent, which includes Google’s Search, Play, Maps, Shopping, and YouTube services, Amazon Marketplace, Apple’s App Store, Microsoft’s Bing and LinkedIn, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, as well as Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia, Booking.com, China’s Alibaba Aliexpress, and German e-commerce firm Zalando.
Breton suggested that other platforms might be added, and the commission is considering “four to five” alternative options before making a decision.
With the prospect of fines up to 10% of their annual revenue, the government’s proposed Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers bill in Britain would give watchdogs additional power to challenge the dominance of internet corporations.
The suggestions might mandate that search engines and online platforms allow competitors access to their data or make their app stores and marketplaces more open.
The regulations would make it unlawful to employ someone to create a false review or to permit the publication of customer reviews online “without taking reasonable steps” to confirm their veracity. Additionally, they would make it simpler for customers to cancel their online subscriptions.
The proposed regulations, which must still go through the legislative process and receive parliamentary approval, would only be applicable to businesses with global revenue of 25 million pounds ($31 billion) or U.K. revenue of 1 billion pounds.
