The European Parliament passed the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) to regulate tech giants in the areas of privacy, algorithms and competition.

Digital services: Parliament has adopted important rules to create a more secure and open online environment. Press release: https://t.co/LW4xOB8dcx pic.twitter.com/NwHkG2eL3o

— European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) July 5, 2022

The Digital Services Act focuses on the activities of online platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and Google. They will be required to fight malicious content and the sale of illegal or unsafe goods.

Users will also be able to learn how and why the recommendation system is showing them certain content and can appeal any decision by the algorithmic moderators.

Companies will not be able to use sensitive data to target ads, show ads to children, or use dark patterns in website and app interfaces.

The most commitments will affect major platforms with a monthly user base of 45 million or more. They may also be subject to independent audits and forced to open access to algorithms to authorities and approved researchers to investigate potential harm.

The Digital Markets Act focuses on fair competition between major platforms such as Google, Microsoft and Apple, and smaller platforms. DMA aims to provide better compatibility with smaller services that send files between systems.

In addition, tech giants will no longer be able to promote their products and services on their platforms in a way that hurts third-party offerings, and complicates the process of removing pre-installed apps.

The DMA will take effect six months after it is published. The DSA will take effect on January 1, 2024.

Violators face a fine of 10% of the annual turnover. For repeated non-compliances, this figure increases to 20%.

Recall that in April the European Union reached an agreement on the adoption of the Digital Services Act.

Announcing the acquisition of Twitter in May, Elon Musk supported the EU’s initiative to regulate social networks.

In June, the European Union updated rules to combat disinformation and deep fraud on the Internet.