The main objective of the Digital Services Act is to ensure the proper functioning of the Single Market, which cannot be achieved without maintaining a safe online environment and increasing the users' capacity to protect their fundamental rights online.

There are many ways to spend time and find information online, whether it's interacting with friends, browsing social media, or shopping online.

Beyond the obvious benefits, online activities also expose you to risks. Many users encountered problems when using these services, whether they bought counterfeit products, felt manipulated when they were aggressively recommended certain products, or their content was blocked on social networks without any explanation.

 

How the new regulations protect your rights?

The Digital Services Regulation introduces a set of rules that help you defend your fundamental rights: freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of information without manipulation and freedom of opinion.

Thus, the new measures are to ensure:

• transparency regarding the data of the providers of intermediary services in order to identify and contact them (whether they only transmit or host certain types of content);
• publication and drafting of the terms and conditions in a clear, comprehensible language;
• greater clarity on the decisions and orders to remove illegal content;
• harmonization of the orders issued by relevant authorities to remove illegal content online;
• publication of periodic reports on the use of automated content moderation and its error rate;
• removal of manipulative design elements (dark patterns);
• prohibition of targeted advertising using sensitive data or data of minors;
• verification and publication of data of traders registered in 'online marketplaces'; 
• access to dedicated complaint-handling services, which cannot rely solely on automated tools, ensuring fast and direct means of contact;
• the right to out-of-court dispute settlement through certified bodies.

 

Who does it apply to?

The Digital Services Act applies to all providers of intermediary services and online platforms in the EU.

Examples of intermediary service providers: online marketplaces, social networks, content-sharing platforms, app stores and online travel and accommodation platforms.

Small and micro enterprises are exempt from some rules that may be more burdensome for them.

Some of the measures apply only to very large platforms and search engines (with over 45 million active users in the European Union).

 

Who checks compliance?

The monitoring of the implementation of the new obligations by very large platforms and search engines will mainly be carried out by the European Commission. Details on the providers designated so far and the Commission's main activities can be found here.

For the other providers, which are not very large online platforms or online search engines, one or more bodies competent to ensure the implementation of the Digital Services Regulation have been or will be designated in each Member State, one of which will also be the coordinator of these activities (Digital Services Coordinator).

Territorially, the competence to monitor compliance with the Digital Services Act lies with the coordinator of the Member State where the main place of establishment of the provider of an intermediary service is located or where the legal representative of that provider resides or is established.

 

What can you report to the Digital Services Coordinator?

Digital Services Coordinators receive complaints about possible infringements of the Digital Services Act by a provider of intermediary services. In Romania, the Digital Services Coordinator is ANCOM.

When the provider against which a complaint has been submitted has its main place of establishment/residence in another EU country or if its legal representative is established in another EU country, the Digital Services Coordinator must cooperate with the Coordinator from the respective country, by forwarding the complaints received and, where appropriate, resolving them through joint investigations.

Observations

Part of the measures imposed by the new regulations are due diligence obligations, meaning that providers must deal with the reported problems and take measures to achieve their defined goal, a safer online environment, but they do not have specific obligations. In this case, the authorities designated to track the activity of the providers will take action when a systemic failure is detected and not in case of complaints about individual infringements.

Providers are not directly accountable for the available content, even if it is illegal. The responsibility of providers can only be called into question once they have been notified of the existence of such content or asked to remove it and have failed to act.

What constitutes illegal content is defined in other laws at either EU or national level – e.g. counterfeit products, child sexual abuse material or hate speech.

 

 

How do I report illegal content on online platforms?

The Digital Services Act requires platforms to have user-friendly flagging mechanisms for illegal content. Platforms should process reports of illegal content in a timely manner, providing information to both the user who flags illegal content and the user who published the content about their decision and any subsequent action.

Therefore, we encourage the use of their complaint forms to obtain a quick resolution.

List of the most used platforms and quick access to their complaint forms:

• YouTube – Reporting and enforcement, click here
• TikTok- Report a problem, please click here
• Snapchat – Report a Safety Concern, click here; Submit a safety concern request here
• WhatsApp – Blocking and reporting contacts, click here
• Instagram – How to report things, click here
• Facebook – Report content, click here
• Facebook Messenger – Reporting conversations, click here
• LinkedIn – Report harassment or a safety concern, click here
• Viber – How to report inappropriate content, click here
• Pinterest – Report something on Pinterest, click here