Entry into force of the DSA: a major step towards a safer Internet in Europe

Arcom welcomes today's publication in the Official Journal of the European Union of the European Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA will be effective from mid-November, and will apply to very large platforms and search engines from 2023.

With this text, the European Union is equipping itself with an innovative and ambitious regulatory framework to respond to the risks raised by online platforms in terms of public protection (attacks on human dignity, harassment, specific risks for persons under 18, online hate, discriminatory bias, etc.) and the stability of our democratic societies (disinformation, calls for violence, operations to destabilize elections coordinated by third-party states, etc.).

The DSA thus strikes a balance between protecting the public and the integrity of democracies, on the one hand, and freedom of expression, on the other.

To meet their new obligations, platforms will have to implement all the means necessary to build a safer Internet, and act responsibly and transparently, in particular by opening up access to their data more widely, on pain of dissuasive financial sanctions.

The DSA also imposes new obligations on online marketplaces, thus strengthening consumer protection.

The coherent and effective application of this restrictive legal instrument will necessarily require greater synergies between the regulators of each Member State and the European Commission, on the one hand, and between all the competent French authorities, on the other. Civil society and the world of research will also have a leading role to play through their work on the impact of platform activity on the dynamics of our societies.

Arcom, with its in-depth knowledge of these issues and the concrete dialogue it has been engaged in with platforms for several years, is ready to contribute immediately, alongside the European Commission and its European counterparts, to the establishment of an operational managerial framework for the regulation of very large platforms.