Digital Services Act: Brussels' new sword hanging over the necks of tech giants

Digital Services Act: Brussels' new sword hanging over the necks of tech giants

In the data age, the European Union is no longer just a consumer market for American technology products, but has become the most powerful global regulator of the internet. The recent full implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) marks a historic turning point, imposing strict controls on how platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) operate, signaling the end of an era of secrecy and chaos in cyberspace. Legal analysis of the DSA reveals that its primary aim is to protect democracy and digital human rights. The law focuses particularly on very large platforms (VLOPs) with over 45 million users in the EU. These platforms are now obligated to monitor harmful content, including disinformation, hate speech, and illegal propaganda. A key feature of the law is that it requires companies to be transparent about how their algorithms determine what users see. For the first time, users are given the option to disable profile-based recommendations, thus limiting the infl…