Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
FOR THE FIRST time in twenty years, Europe is trying to regulate big tech. Two major new EU laws should pass in the next few months, if not weeks: the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act.
The European Commission, which proposed them, says the laws “aim to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected and to establish a level playing field for businesses”.
It’s not the kind of thing calculated to set pulses racing unless you’re a tech lobbyist or European Parliament rapporteur. But the laws will eventually change lots of different areas of digital life. If you download apps on your smartphone, the Digital Markets Act affects you. If you publish content online and would like it to stay up, start learning about the Digital Services Act.
There are, very broadly, four main things that the laws aim to do:
The main targets are the five mega-corporations that control a good chunk of online commerce: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), and Meta (Facebook). They aren’t particularly happy about it, but the laws are moving ahead with – for the EU – lightning speed.
The Digital Markets Act
Big tech has traditionally been regulated by competition laws (what Americans call anti-trust). Competition law is partly about stopping dominant companies from taking unfair advantage of consumers or other businesses. In 2017, for example, the European Commission fined Google €2.4 billion for giving Google Shopping more prominence in its search results and reducing the prominence of competing websites.
But competition investigations take ages. By the time officials have put together their analysis of how the rules are being broken and defended it through the courts, the market could be completely different, or the technology in question irrelevant.
The Google Shopping case started life in 2010, saw the fine levied in 2017, and is still under appeal at the EU Court of Justice. “It’s not really directly relevant what the court decides because few consumers use comparison shopping services any more”, says Zach Meyers of the Centre for European Reform, a think tank.
Similarly, the Commission spent years pursuing Microsoft for pushing its own Internet Explorer at the expense of competing browsers, even as use of Explorer in practice was plummeting.
Regulators now want to set the rules on digital competition in advance, rather than trying to react to situations as they arise. Those rules would apply to “gatekeeper” firms of a certain size that run a “core platform service”: Meta’s Facebook social network, Alphabet’s Google search or Apple’s iOS operating system, for example.
What these platforms have in common is that they stand between other businesses and potential customers. The Digital Markets Act tries to make sure that gatekeepers don’t make it too hard or expensive for other businesses to reach customers via Google search or the App Store or whatever it might be.
For example, instead of having to work out whether Google’s search practices are in breach of competition law in a given situation, the Digital Markets Act would simply say that a gatekeeper can’t rank its own products or services “more favourably” than similar offerings from a “third party”.
Other specific rules include:
A second objective of the Digital Markets Act is to encourage entirely new platforms to spring up – rather than just regulating the ones that exist. Google would have to provide data to competing search engines so that they can improve their results. Operating systems like Apple iOS and Android would have to allow mobile phone apps that aren’t sold on the App Store/Google Play. Amazon would have to let sellers flog their wares cheaper on other sites.
Meyers reckons that the law is likely to have more of an impact in terms of creating a level playing field on existing platforms than in fostering plucky competitors. “Despite all of these rules, it’s still incredibly difficult to go out there into the market and create entirely new platforms without having huge amounts of data, a lot of capital behind you and good relationships with other companies in the ecosystem”, he tells The Journal.
But I don’t think we should only judge success by whether there are smaller companies that suddenly become really big and compete with, say, Facebook. Another metric of success is whether the companies that are already big start innovating more quickly or spending more money on innovation because otherwise they would lose market share.
“If they became a little bit more afraid of competition, that would also be a good outcome – even if you don’t see market shares dramatically changing”.
The full list of dos and don’ts are in Articles 6 and 7 of the draft law. They will definitely apply to the big five US tech companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft. About a dozen more are in the frame as well, but may or may not be included depending on the final version of the law, which is being finalised over the next few months.
These include household names like Airbnb, Zoom, Yahoo and Booking.com, plus more business-focused firms like SAP, Oracle and Salesforce, according to the think tank Bruegel. Off the hook are Netflix, Spotify, Twitter, Slack and Uber.
The first draft of the legislation was unveiled in December 2020. Things have moved with, in European Union terms, lightning speed since then, reflecting what the law firm Clifford Chance calls “remarkable consensus” on what the law should do. The EU Council, Parliament and Commission are now holding “trilogue” talks: a standard, if murky, way of getting EU laws finalised.
The French government, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council and is facing elections in April and June, wants to get it through in the next few weeks.
The Digital Services Act
The second draft law is the Digital Services Act. This is also about regulating online platforms, but in terms of the content that’s on them rather than how they monetise it. Although it covers the online world in general, not just the biggest players, some of the most important rules apply only to the giants.
In that sense, it complements the Digital Markets Act. Meyers says “it’s impossible to look at the economic power of big tech companies, which is what the DMA tries to tackle, without also looking at their social and political power”.
The basic issue is that there’s a lot of bad stuff on the internet. The European Commission says that “citizens are exposed to increasing risks and harms online… These issues are widespread across the online ecosystem, but they are most impactful where very large online platforms are concerned”.
The Digital Services Act addresses this in two main ways. One is to get those very large companies to take stock of what’s going on their platforms and come up with strategies for addressing what the law calls “systemic risks”. The other is to give internet users more rights, both in terms of getting content taken down but also to get an explanation if their own content is taken down.
The risk assessment bit is addressed to “very large online platforms”: those with 45 million monthly users or more. They would have to do a sort of annual audit, or “risk assessment”, of their platforms. This would check not only for “the dissemination of illegal content”, but also “intentional manipulation” with a “negative effect” on society. The risk assessment would also have to cover “any negative effects” on human rights.
That’s all very well when it comes to illegal content like child sexual abuse images. But the law ranges much more widely than that, and leaves a lot of room for interpretation.
“The language in the DSA is very vague about what exactly the problems are,” says Ronan Fahy of the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Information Law. “It talks about things the platform does that may impact on freedom of expression: that is incredibly broad. It talks about ‘inauthentic’ use of a platform’s service. It isn’t very concrete”.
Having done their risk assessment, firms then have to put in place “mitigation measures” to tackle those risks. These could include things like better content moderation, changing the algorithms that decide what posts people see on a social network, or tweaking their terms and conditions.
Again, though, lawmakers haven’t been all that precise about what companies are obliged to do. “There’s an awful lot of discretion around what the platform has to do to mitigate those risks,” Fahy reckons.
A lot depends on who checks up on these plans. The European Council and Parliament have amended it to give the European Commission an enforcement role, rather than leaving firms to self-regulate. That should give the law considerably more teeth – but also increases the risk that companies will err on the side of censorship.
“You could imagine that if the Commission is concerned about disinformation, then the platform kind of over-moderates, when disinformation isn’t in itself illegal”, Fahy tells The Journal. “You can see that there could be knock-on consequences for freedom of expression”.
The second big theme is to do with taking down individual pieces of content. Online platforms would have to provide a system for people to get in touch asking for illegal content to be pulled, and prioritise requests from organisations certified as “trusted flaggers” by national regulators.
It would also make it easier for people who are having their content taken down to make their case to the platform. For example, if YouTube were to pull someone’s video for breaching their terms and conditions, it would have to give reasons for its decision. Companies would also need to have a complaints procedure for people to challenge moderation decisions.
“These user rights are going to be quite important for people in terms of when their content is taken down from the platform, or if they want to get content taken down”, Fahy says. “They’ll hopefully have a big impact. At the moment, you can’t really contest what the platforms do”.
This set of obligations on platforms are pretty specific. How exactly people will be able to enforce these rights if a company doesn’t play ball is less obvious at the moment. The legislation envisages each EU country having a “digital services coordinator”, similar to a data protection commissioner for privacy complaints.
“It’s not quite clear whether you can complain about all the provisions in the DSA to those digital service coordinators, or if you first have to complain to the platform and go through their process of appeal”, Fahy says.
That might be firmed up when the final version of the law emerges from EU negotiations. A lot of the detail is still up for grabs: the European Parliament made 457 amendments to the original draft. Like the Digital Markets Act, the legislation is now being hammered out in talks between Parliament, Commission and governments, but has progressed rapidly compared to most major EU laws and should be ready before the French elections.
This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Id be more concerned that none of them have a set of balls
‘Disaster’ might be over-stating it.
Perhaps so, but when the Government can’t even be bothered showing lip service to the language it’s pretty worrying.
Meh, the vast majority of the country couldn’t care less, the issue gets far too much attention given its lack of actual importance.
Don’t say ‘Meh’
ok pffff then
Men and women died so we could speak a language and they wont even bother to learn it or even show respect. Its a disgrace. ‘Tìr gan teanga, Tìr gan anam’
Who died?
“Men and women died so we could speak a language and they wont even bother to learn it or even show respect. Its a disgrace. ‘Tìr gan teanga, Tìr gan anam’
We’ve had 100 years of irish being force fed down our throats, and still only 70,000 speak it daily.
If 20 million died, they died for a cause at that time. It’s not my cause, and I’m not responsible for it.
What a total load of nationalistic rubbish.
Well Fiachra, the goverments(both this and the last one) have not paid lip service to the people on bigger issues such as the economy, bank bailouts and the future Irish generations, with all due respect, this is pretty trivial in comparison
@john sharpson what an assh-le you are, men and women fought for this country to rid us of colonialism and a foreign rule and just not to preserve the irish language. The irish proclamation was all inclusive and not exclusive, those Irishmen who fought in world war one should be equally remembered for their bravery and their representation of this wonderful country in ww1, they had courage not like a cowardly keyboard cretin like you.
Clearly you never heard of the Easter rising or the war of independence, a country without its language is a country without its soul.
Yea that’s right, the Easter rising and the civil war was all about preserving the language,,, sorry i forgot..
A country preoccupied with language is not a country but a bunch of a…holes manipulating the populous for their own ends.
If i don’t see a shamrock and a leprechaun at least once a week i forget i am Irish. happens to us all….
For you maybe. What about the people who’s daily language is Irish. Majority Rules as usual and the vast majority of the country couldn’t care less about anything
Seriously how is this an issue? Most of the country don’t have knowledge of Irish. Flogging a dead horse here.
Gen – is a new Troll !!!!
aithnionnn ciaróg ciaróg eile
Woah calm down there sonny, you’ll blow too soon.
Old troll, new name…
Can they please discuss actual proper important issues!
I don’t give a flying monkey’s if a TD from any party has no word of Irish, what I care about is if they get the job done.
SF need to get their priority’s in order!
Couldn’t agree more, Martin. Absolutely farcical intervention on the part of this man – and to think I had begun to consider voting for Sinn Fein! If I, as an English speaker, am going to be subjected to fascism under Sinn Fein I’m going to have to do a lot of re-thinkin.
How many times have you been forced to speak Irish in Ireland? I and my neighbours – we live in an Irish speaking district – are forced to speak English in their business with the State. Is that facism? Should I be forced to abandon my birth and constitutional right because the State does not cherish it?
If you took care to learn English properly, you might have a point.
‘But he insisted that there was a far greater amount of people …’
Number of people – not amount. There’s something to be said for good English.
Aye, is beag Teachta Dála atá in ann Béarla a labhairt na laethanta seo.
Other then a handful of people out in the sticks in the west of Ireland, I doubt anybody cares whether our Ministers can speak Irish or not. And if they do care then they need to get out more!
Speak for yourself
Spot on darnell,
The important thing here is can the TD do their job, after that I don’t care if they speak french instead of Irish as a second language
Typical D4 type ignorant smart Alec reply from Darnell – you foolish Troll
French would be more useful for a minister Martin!
Im sure youd give a shit if they spoke french and not english…..
I’m not sure Karen, I was better at French after five years of school than my Irish was after thrirteen years!
I am not from Dublin 4 lol. Im just saying what most people are thinking. Sorry I hit a nerve, I’m just an ignorant Dublin jackeen-what would I know?!
Darnell
You shouldn’t rise to the Sinn Fein bait. Remember they operate in groups or cells and have seriously infected this particular site. You didn’t hit a nerve but instead you hit a learned comment point.
No he speaking for the majority of this hell hole of a country … It’s a useless dead language and should be removed from all walks of irish life … Gaelic nonsense
“Richard” and KKK – the leading lights in conspiracy theories – and a laugh a minute too – a chara !
old clichéd old crap from you there ciarraioch you don’t have to be from D4 to harbour similar views,some of us are even from Kerry and are even educated but may have a difference of opinion, does that make me a troll or does it make you a condescending oppressive dimwit.
Agus cén teangacha eile a labhraíonn tú féin, anseo nó thar lear? And what other languages do you speak?
Sure if they started speaking Irish there would be loads of “oh, that was a language error, I meant to say something else”.. I’m so over this boring debate! It’s a dead language, let it die!
I actually was proficient in English and the science subjects, physics,chemistry and biology and had little interest In irish, I actually preferred latin which was just about useful as irish but more relavent in my profession.
Wether a person is an Irish speaker or not is not an affective way to judge if they are good enough to hold high office. It’s desirable but nothing more.
Why is it desirable?
Its desirable to the few thousand irish spreakers, its a waste of time to everyone else
Its desirable to people who think you cant be irish without speaking irish. in fact, these days it has nothing to do with being irish at all. its just a hobby for a few idiots in aran jumpers (cable knit, the woolen umbilical cord back to the garden of eden)
Idiotic comment.
Perfectly put Andrew!
Surely it’s better to be bilingual than monoligual
lack of ethics, no problem. Cant speak Irish hell to pay…..
Actually they give out regularly about FG/FF and labours lack of ethics
Can’t speak ordinary English let alone irish
Focall Irish speaking ministers…tut tut..
Years of symbolism hasn’t done anything to revive the Irish language.
What do we need? More symbolism…
I have made a commitment to go back and learn it later this year, I feel that Ireland is in a poorer place cultural than ever before and the global elite wish to keep us devoid of heritage and historical continuity, the Irish language is rich in its interpretation of the world, but I honesty feel that to learn it is to give two fingers to the new world order of the EU and multiculturalism, both of which destroy Nations.
culturally – a pity the Journal does not have an edit capacity.
Tir gan teanga, tir gan anam as my old CB used say as he buggered his way around the classroom
A bit of a saga there Snorre I say.
They have taken away your national identity, bankrupted your nation, and knackered your nation for 50-100 years to come and all the misery that involves.
And you complain about the loss of a dead language!
Unfortunately you have a good point. The same dimwits we had 90 years ago are still with us.
If they really wanted to make that point, they should do ALL their Dáil speeches as Gaeilge. They would probably make the same amount of sense as the ones they give in English.
It would help to keep the majority of us in the dark.
I wonder how much this will cost us after Sinn Féin insist on having the full transcript of their exchange with Bruton translated into Irish and then have it photocopied 500 times per constituent – as is their constitutional right!
I wouldn’t worry about the cost of photocopying as SF have loads of print cartridges.
Can’t believe we’re paying them to have this argument.
That’s the disgrace.
I don’t trust them when they are speaking English and if any of them start speaking Irish I really will start to worry. SF/IRA use it to deceive. If SF/ IRA really were determined to promote Irish let them speak only Irish in the chamber and at council meetings – see how that works with voters. They have no conviction only to power at any cost.
They should be more concerned that there was no minister available who gives to shites about the people of this country
Lm Group
Try practicing your English before you post. The progress one can make in a short time can be remarkable. I could recommend a good person to assist you.
This government is crap in any language!
Cronyism, corruption and skimming of “Charities” by Government party officials……. WTF
The solution to this problem is having MORE primary school teachers in government. There, how do you feel about that?
SF will have non-Irish speakers “re-educated” in special camps.
Judging by how they treat their own whom they suspect of supporting law and order do’;t envisage a nice time.
SS camps come to mind.
The competence deficit is the issue.
Not gaeilge tokenism
Typical Paddys attack the man for speaking his own language in his own country during a designated Irish week. Cromwell and his army did a good job on the Irish . Conservative/Tory governments and the most subservient country in Europe . Rule Britannia for the mongrel paddys.
So are you saying I’m not Irish if I don’t speak Irish?
i learned to hate the irish language.i cant stick it even stick it for ten seconds.it all started in in 2002,when i start going to thailand a coulple of times every year.anyway i use to come home via aerlingus from amsterdam. i was depressed off me nut after saying goodbye to all the little honeys.and then it would start,the dreaded irish language on the plane and the rude air hostesses with the caked on make up. it was then i would know i was back to reality
The world is a little sadder because you said that
You must not know much about t he world!
It seems you don’t have much affection for English either.
sorry nobby
Dave – are you a cousin to Richard Rogers – he has hangups peculiar to you too ?
Stick with the lady boys then Dave
Thats what this government is about,ridding use of as much irishness as they can,nearly trying to make the word catholic a dirty word,but this is Ireland we have our culture and our nationality,but i believe Shatter has a big hand in all this anti Irishness,he is desperately trying to diversify our population as quick as he can,in 2011 their was 112,000 people from outside the Eu who`s visa`s were due to expire,and would off had to leave Ireland,but Shatter quickly changed the rules and let them stay,with the promise they could apply for citizenship in 5 yrs.Shatter is despised by most Irish people and he has no Irish blood in him,so he does`nt give a toss about Ireland and its indigenous people,while spineless Kenny looks on,and lets him do as he likes.
Staighttalker
I don’t really know how to respond to that post! Perhaps I should recommend that you should get out and about a little as you seem to be unable to express yourself in a comfortable way. Maybe you should slow down and try to make real sentences rather than splurging with words. Finally you should try to remove any public expressions of hatred in your contributions and racism is a real no no!
PS…a name change would be a good idea !
@richard Rodgers
Keep your opinions to yourself you idiot , just because you are a lackey for kenny and co . And haven’t got the guts to stand up for what you believe in you politically correct tool.
Straighttalker, you’re a cod. A cod for all to see.
@Genocidal capitalist
How many aliases do you have fool,you might need to get help for that!
Just the one you pleb. Then again you are a vile disgusting piece of filth. One can only laugh at your sad little xenophobic rants. Oh and while you accuse Shatter of having no Irish blood in him, where is your passport? Kind of hoping they don’t give them to the village idiot like yourself.
upset have i,you pathetic delinquent ,you have all the hallmarks of a spoiled rich kid,you ignorant fool.
And you have the grammatical capabilities of a child. Having said that, it wouldn’t surprise me that you are a child given the depth of your argument. As for rich kid; I’m rich in the knowledge that I’m far superior to you in every way.
heh, ‘keep your opinions to yourself’ …. oh dear
I should have said a vile nasty rich kid who`s full of shit,and a complete coward as well,call my bluff tool,come on
Grand, come down to Stephens Green. Just make sure the locals don’t ask you to leave because of the smell of bullsh*t off you.
Are you sure mammy will let you out, you horrible piece of shit, it’s getting late , you’d be better of trying to educate yourself you sad baxtxard
I love the irony of someone of your intellectual capabilities stating that I should educate myself. Try reading your last post, and I mean try because I know learning a new language can be difficult.
I’ll ask your mammy, after I pull out.
Geno – you write identically like your other five aliases – very hard to hide gross ignorance !
So you base who you think I am from my writing style? Ignorance is bliss for you kid.
I think the church has been doing a great job of making “Catholic” a dirty word all on its own, without any help from the Government
Who gives a shit, oh my god surely there are more serious matters than an irish speaking minister, again more bullshit from the media, great job
Even as an Irish speaker and a supporter of the language, I have to agree with you.
I don’t think taking a petty swipe at the govt over it is doing the language any favours. There’s so many bigger issues.
Besides, the fact that that shower of mutts can’t speak it kinda makes it a lot cooler!
Sf should head to high court and complain. We spend too much on a lame language that is no longer relevant in global business.
Do they not teach Irish @ Clongowes?
One thing I can’t understand. What do most Irish people have against being able to speak a two languages? It is the norm in most of Europe. But we are so proud that we can barely master one and even then not able to adjust our English when necessary to be understood by people from other countries. We are so proud that we are thick.
Don’t look to UK, USA , Australia……..see the real world, where multilingualism is no problem
This is the worst thing ever in the history of the country, ever.
WE ARE DOOMED.
sure we might aswel rejoin the empire!
Opposition really struggling…
O’Really – O’Reilly – you are a laugh a minute after your lot disgracing themselves over the past few weeks !
Have Shatter and Callinan followed Frank Flannery yet ?
Whatever Kerry. Btw, despite you spelling your name as geailge, and being a devout shinnerbot, not a word of Irish in any of your posts in defense of the language! Typical Sinn Fein double speak…
Irish speaking TD’s are usually teachers and teachers make terrible TD’s.
True, but that’s because they are only qualified as teachers, not because they are Irish Speakers
WE SPEAK ENGLISH IN THIS COUNTRY
Tá an Ghaeilig á labhairt sa tír seo fosta…
What Country Des ? Are you abroad ?
Ciarraioch i dont know if you have noticed,but we are all speaking english to each other here,you stupid bogger.go and talk irish to your sheep
Des you are a CLOWN. Tá an Ghaeilge fós beo is mairfidh sí go deo
It’d be great if they were all bilingual in the Dail. Then they could tell lies in two languages.
I’d also be very interested to know how many of the people vehemently complaining about them ‘wasting time’ and ‘not getting the job done’, among other things, would have been actually interested in the outcome of Leaders Questions today had this little cause for debate not arisen.
What I can’t understand is why so many people who have no connection or use for the Irish language are so dead set against it. I can appreciate anybody being apathetic, it’s not for everyone and there’s plently of things that don’t affect me in this country that I couldn’t give a damn about, but I never make it my business to go out of my way and be detrimental to those things just because..! Can people not just let those who are ar son na Gaeilge have their say and if you don’t care, don’t bother. Surely it takes more energy to b*tch and moan about it than it does to just move on to something else more pertinent to your own life? Ní thuigim, ach tuigim nach bhfuil aon maitheas ann a bheith ag tráchtáil anseo ach an oiread.
I thought that roly poly Rabbitte could talk irish, he can talk a lot of rubbish.
Sounds like a one off situation as so many are out of the country for St Patricks stuff – think generating jobs and investment for the country is marginally more important than some weekly charade
Can we please put the Irish language to bed once and for all.. Like religion, if you want to speak Irish please do so, in the privacy of your own home but don’t expect my children to learn it. Furthermore do not accuse people of being less Irish because they don’t speak it. Show some respect. And more importantly do not hijack my heritage of revolution and fighting against oppression with some narrow minded socialist Republican mantra.
A dead language is a language that noboby speaks. Irish is a very minority language, but not dead yet, unbelievably.
This is a Government which never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity to promote Irish. No doubt their missions abroad are important and may yield jobs and investment but they could have avoided yesterday’s debacle with a little forward planning.
Opposition moan bags
Tom I’d say you are a bags yourself a blue bags I’d say.
Say Wallace and Ming have good Irish. Terrible to say that’s what they are arguing over now and the country on its knees.
nuari a fleiceann muid taria labhairt cant ar dteanga fine agus ansin gaire mar gheall air doesent a ra a lan faoi ce ni mor duinn running ar dtir na brit,s havent imithe ar shiul.
when we see a minster that cant speak our own language and then laugh about it doesent that say alot about whos runing our country the brits havent gone away.
How many of the opposition could ask a question in Irish??
Absolutely disgraceful, should use their St Patrick’s holiday money for Irish classes instead of going abroad. Shameful. Gaeilge Abu.
As FG’s National Campaign Director in the Seanad referendum, I noticed Mr Bruton never once used the word Seanad referring to it always as the Senate. Also he still hasn’t twigged that the government’s new service for the unemployed In-treo is based on the Irish and in interviews he pronounces it as ‘in-tree-o’, and for the government’s new employment scheme ‘Tús’ he pronounces it as ‘tus’! It’s hilarious when a government Minister can’t even pronounce the names of his own schemes properly. As far as I know the Minister is an ex-Clongowes boy – so maybe that explains it. The Jesuits were always intent on producing an English gentleman-type native Catholic ruling class to replace the old Protestant elite. They did a fair job too, didn’t they? … bail ó Dhia orthu. The Christian Brothers on the other hand were a more patriotic type, inculculating FF-type virtues as opposed to the Jesuitical FG ones.
Does anyone have a difficulty understanding what Kenny says on his all too infrequent addresses to the Dail Chamber?
What language is this?
Perhaps the vacuous language of political discourse.
A combination of vague waffle, corporate tongue and doublespeak.
have your say