Proactive Investors - From today, tech giants operating in the EU face fines of up to 6% of their global turnover if they are found guilty of breaches of content moderation, user privacy and transparency.
Meta, owner of Facebook (NASDAQ:META) and Instagram, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s online App Store, X (Twitter) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) all fall within the remit of the EU’s new Digital Services Act.
Experts see the new laws as a touchstone for content pumped out by the social media giants and, if successful, teh DSA is expected to be replicated globally.
Initially, the rules will apply to nineteen of the largest online platforms or those with more than 45 million users in the EU, but from February will apply to all online platforms.
Firms found guilty of repeat offences face the threat of a European ban.
According to Reuters, two of the nineteen – e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and German fashion retailer Zalando – are currently taking legal action against their inclusion.
Five operators including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat have also taken part in stress tests with the upshot that they were told more work was needed to comply.
Earlier this year, Global Witness, a not-for-profit organisation, accused Facebook, TikTok and Google's YouTube for inciting violence against the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community in Ireland through ads that appeared on their platforms.
At the time, both Meta and TikTok said hate speech had no place on their platforms and procedures were regularly reviewed and improved. Google did not respond to a request for comment.