There’s been a lot happening and I have not been watching. Here’s my notes as I look to catch up. …

The regulatory aquis is being built on the GDPR and the recently passed Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act and the commitment to further regulate AI are all pieces in the new regulatory landscape.

Wikipedia lists the laws as,

The commission have established a set of principles, called the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles which will guiding their regulatory strategies. A summary of these rights and principles used at the Virtual Worlds citizens panel are:

  1. Putting people and their rights at the centre of the digital transformation
  2. Supporting solidarity and inclusion
  3. Ensuring freedom of choice online
  4. Fostering participation in the digital public space
  5. Increasing safety, security and empowerment of individuals
  6. Promoting the sustainability of the digital future

I have found the following resources,

  1. Europe fit for the digital age, priorities-2019-2024 the Commission’s headline page, listing projects and milestones, see also Shaping Europe’s digital future
  2. Europe fit digital age, on the digital-markets-act by the commission, and the legislation, also The Digital_Markets_Act by wikipedia
  3. On the Data Act, by the commission’s press office, or here by the Commission
  4. The digital-services-act-package, a landing page, by the Commission on both acts.
  5. Digital Services Act ensuring safe and accountable online environment a landing page on the DSA, by the Commission, on carrier/publisher liability & notify & takedown
  6. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/12/how-companies-prepare-digital-services-act/, a third sector organisation;s comments on the DSA.
  7. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai
  8. McKinsey decide to comment “The EU digital strategy: The impact of data privacy on global business”.
  9. This, EU’s contempt for encryption puts all Europeans at risk, from Euractiv, and the Parliament creeps towards an Act,

The Digital Services Act makes it clear that platforms and other intermediaries are not liable for users’ unlawful behaviour unless they are aware of illegal acts and fail to remove them. It defines a pan-european notice and takedown process, designed to be cheap so SMEs can operate them.

The Digital Markets Act, aims to ensure that large platforms, that behave as gatekeepers behave in a fair way online.Together with the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act is one of the centrepieces of the European digital strategy.

The Democracy Shield

The democracy shield looks to defend free and fair elections, act against disinformation and fake news, and promote media freedom through a media freedom act.

At the Tallinn Conference, in particular, I observed a difference of views on the need to respond to fake news with Eastern Europeans arguing that a state organ marking news’ truthfulness was an act of censorship, and I as the only Brit arguing that a monopoly of press ownership by the rich and the intervention of foreign governments needed to be regulated.

CoFoE recommended that something needs to be done and it seems the EU agrees, although not on fact checking.

In this press release, the Commission says,

Building on experience gained in the 2019 European parliamentary elections and delivering on the priorities announced in the European Democracy Action Plan and the 2020 EU Citizenship Report, the Commission is presenting today a number of initiatives to reinforce democracy and integrity of elections. This includes proposal for a Regulation on transparency of political advertising, to update the Regulation on the statute and funding of the European political parties and European political foundations and two proposals updating the Directives on the electoral rights of “mobile EU citizens”.

The Democracy action plan, is further explained on this page. Protecting European democracy from interference and manipulation – European Democracy Action Plan.

The EU plans to legislate for honesty and transparency in political advertising.

In the 23/24 term, they will consider an eu-ai-act. Reuters report on the state of the Act’s conciliation process. The thorniest issues are biometric surveillance and copyrighted material used by ChatGPT and other generative AI. This has now been passed; I should comment on it.

See also, on my blog, …

What did CoFoE say about digitisation?

In my blog article on Starmer’s Autumn 23 reshuffle, I commented on Labour’s record on digital regulation. I reproduce an excerpt here, I say,

Labour has, in my opinion, a poor record on 21st century digital policy; on copyright, surveillance and cybersecurity, it has most of the big calls wrong. On copyright, it passed laws or argued for those that benefit industrial music and movies. This is at the cost of supporting fans, and inhibiting the internet’s growth …

Labour also has a poor record on freedom of speech, state surveillance and cybersecurity, partly through their reaction to political fake news and bullying,

… these legal frameworks come from the United States and are designed to boost the profitability of US intellectual property industries and facilitate their surveillance state.

Dave Levy, on his blog

It seems I made two of these pages, I have transferred the other’s content here. It contains the following links, which I will weed another day.

CC European Parliament BY 2020, cropped from Flickr

I also had a look at the EU’s digital market regulation, this cover privacy, data-protection, e-commerce, direct marketing, and liability for illegal content, from music to porn. They seem to have done quite a bit since I stopped watching them in 2018. Here are my notes and links …

Links

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