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Plenary hall in Strasbourg (archive photo): »A huge success for us pirates«
Photo: Patrick Seeger/ dpa
Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple are subject to stricter rules in the EU.
The European Parliament passed two laws with a large majority on Tuesday, which are intended, among other things, to ensure stricter supervision of online platforms and more consumer protection.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is intended to put a better stop to social problems such as punishable hate speech or other illegal content on the Internet.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA), on the other hand, aims to curb the market power of Internet companies, ensure fairer competition and give consumers more freedom of choice.
Negotiators from parliament and EU states had previously agreed on the laws, and now parliament has formally confirmed them.
The permanent representatives of the EU countries in Brussels have also approved the laws, now they have to be approved at ministerial level.
This is considered a formality.
The DSA ascribes more responsibility to platforms and is intended to ensure that certain content disappears from the Internet more quickly.
Examples are terror propaganda, punishable hate speech or offers of counterfeit goods.
The law is part of a digital package that includes the DMA.
It prohibits big tech companies from merging data from different sources without explicit user consent.
In the future, large messenger services such as WhatsApp and iMessage will also have to open up to receiving messages from other, smaller applications if they so wish.
The project was praised across party lines: Green MEP Rasmus Andresen called the DMA "one of the most important laws" that was passed in the current legislative period.
"The DSA and DMA are a milestone in cleaning up the Internet and fighting digital monopolies," said Left Party MP Martin Schirdewan.
His FDP colleague Svenja Hahn emphasized that there had also been successes for civil rights.
Social Democrats and Christian Democrats also praised the laws.
The MEP for the Pirate Party, Patrick Breyer, said: "The fact that messenger services with the DMA can be used across providers in the future is a huge success for us pirates and a decisive blow to the previous dependence on the data-hungry and consumer-hostile WhatsApp".
The DSA, on the other hand, is not suitable for protecting fundamental rights on the Internet: »Unfortunately, industrial and government interests have largely prevailed against digital civil rights«.
pbe/dpa
