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'No longer acceptable' for platforms to take key decisions alone, EU Commission says
It is "no longer acceptable" for social media giants to take key decisions on online content removals alone, following the high profile takedowns of US President Trump's accounts on Facebook and Twitter, the European Commission has said.
Trump's accounts have been suspended by the two platforms for inciting calls to violence ahead of the violent riots that hit Washington's Capitol Hill last week.
Speaking to lawmakers on Monday (11 January), Prabhat Agarwal, an official who heads up the eCommerce unit at the European Commission's DG Connect, noted how the EU executive's Digital Services Act attempts to realign the balance between effective content removal and preserving freedom of expression online.
"It is no longer acceptable in our view that platforms take some key decisions by themselves alone without any supervision, without any accountability, and without any sort of dialogue or transparency for the kind of decisions that they're taking," Agarwal said.
"Freedom of expression is really a key value in this," he told the European Parliament's internal market committee.
The comments came following concerns raised by some lawmakers in the European Parliament following the suspension of Trump's social media accounts. In doing so, platforms giants had demonstrated that they yield a disproportionate degree of power over the freedom of speech online.
"The fact that platforms like Twitter and Facebook decide who can speak freely is dangerous," Green MEP Kim van Sparrentak said.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 15 2021, @06:08PM (8 children)
ISP's were banned from blocking tings because they were classified as Common Carries until Team Trump revoked that classification.
So you can thank Trump for the ISP's being able to block stuff they don't like.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday January 15 2021, @06:47PM (2 children)
By the FCC, which is useless. Congress failed to pass legislation between 2009 and 2011 to make it really stick. FCC rules are changed by pure whimsy of the executive unless congress acts, which they won't, because they really don't want common carrier either. If they did, it would be law.
We need to use technology to make censorship as difficult as possible, can't depend on the law, that would be foolish
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 15 2021, @08:04PM (1 child)
ISPs were reclassified to be Common Carriers in 2015. [senate.gov]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday January 15 2021, @08:34PM
An FCC order, that allowed it to regulate the ISPs, totally bogus, easily overturned by the next admin. Congressional legislation is needed to make it a mandate to regulate the ISPs. They had that chance between 2009 and 2011 when they had a majority and the nuclear option, but instead abdicated. Why are you in denial?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by slinches on Friday January 15 2021, @07:01PM (1 child)
You have your causation mixed up. ISPs were already blocking stuff in violation of their common carrier status, so they were reclassified. They were essentially double covered by common carrier and section 230 protections and while the Trump administration had no way to remove both directly, reclassification at least means that they would be subject to the same rules as everyone else who controls the content going through their systems. Then any follow on revisions to section 230 to address the free speech issue would apply to them as well unless they want to change their policies to regain common carrier protections.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday January 15 2021, @08:54PM
As horrible as the whole CDA is, it and section 230 were passed by congress. Reclassification of the ISPs also requires an act of congress to make it real and a tiny bit more permanent. They squandered that chance a decade ago, mainly because they need a national firewall, you know, to block piratebay... FCC regs can and always will change at the drop of a hat.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 15 2021, @07:03PM (2 children)
Net Neutrality isn't the same thing as Common Carrier. CC is a stricter standard than NN, and is what ISPs should have been from the start. The NN fight also predates Trump by at least a decade.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 15 2021, @08:02PM (1 child)
2015: FCC Reclassifies ISPs as Common Carriers [adweek.com]
2018: FCC Eliminates Common Carrier Regulation of Broadband Providers [lexology.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday January 15 2021, @08:37PM
2009 - 2011: Congress fails to classify ISPs as common carriers!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..