EU vs large platforms

The EU experience

August 2024 summarized the results of EU investigations into TikTok and Meta for violating the requirements of the Digital Services¹ Act (hereinafter DSA), which came into force in February 2024 and established a few obligations for platforms that operate with unlawful content.

DSA identifies a special category of VERY LARGE ONLINE PLATFORMS - more than 45 million EU users per month. Currently,² 19 platforms fall into this category. They have special requirements, non-compliance with which has led to investigations by the European Commission against AliExpress, Meta and³ Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

Telegram Messenger also operates in the EU. An investigation against Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, was launched in August 2024.The allegations of violation of French law largely correlate with the rules laid down by the DSA.

Let's look at the investigation against Meta and TikTok, and whether Telegram could be recognized as a VLOPs, and what consequences would that lead to?

Firstly, the VLOPs’ status entails several responsibilities:

− Assess at least once a year “systemic risks”

(Art. 34) in relation to its services, including content moderation systems, design of recommendation systems, advertising services, etc. Systemic risks include distribution of unlawful content, violation of human dignity, violation of the rights to personal data protection, freedom of speech and information, non-discrimination, child and consumer protection, etc. − Reduce systems risks (Art. 35), including adaptation of design and interfaces, service functions, content moderation (e.g., speed of response to complaints on unlawful content, prompt removal of such content), algorithmic systems, including recommendation systems, introduction of child protection tools (age verification and parental control), labeling of deepfakes, etc. − Introduce a crisis response mechanism (Art.

36) to security threats. − Conduct an independent audit at least once a year (Art. 37) and have an independent compliance mechanism for DSA compliance (Art. 41). − Have an advertising repository - a repository of information on the ads being placed. − Provide an option in their recommendation systems that is not based on user profiling.

In August 2024, the Commission's investigation against TikTok in connection with TikTok Lite's “TikTok Lite Challenge and Rewards Program,” which allows users to earn points by completing certain “tasks and rewards” such as watching videos, liking content, inviting friends to join TikTok, etc., concluded. Points can be exchanged for Amazon vouchers, PayPal gift cards, TikTok own digital currency, and more. According to the European Commission, the Program was launched without prior assessment of systemic risks, such as the risk of “addictive effect to the platform” of users, and no measures were taken to mitigate such risks, especially in relation to children and their mental health, encouraging addictive behavior. As a result, the TikTok Lite Program was first suspended (in April 2024), and given TikTok's failure to conduct a risk assessment - since August, the Commission decided to ban the Program in the EU.

Also in August, the probe into Meta⁴ gained momentum. The probe itself began back in April 2024 since Meta:

− Infringes the requirements to the mechanism for flagging illegal content - the mechanism is not easily accessible and user-friendly, and there is no internal system for handling complaints about content moderation decisions. − Does not provide tools for civil discourse and real-time election monitoring in the run- up to elections. Meta plans to shut down

CrowdTangle, a public information gathering tool for real-time elections monitoring. According to the Commission, shutting down CrowdTangle jeopardizes civil discourse and electoral processes in the EU. Consumers will not be able to monitor misinformation, election interference and ensure overall transparency in real-time by providing facts to journalists and other stakeholders.

In the run-up to the May 2024 elections, Meta included new features in CrowdTangle - 27 publicly available dashboards (1 for each EU state). The features have now been discontinued and the Commission has requested information on the operation of such features for further proceedings in August 2024.

August 2024 saw the arrest of Pavel⁵ Durov, the founder of Telegram, accused of complicity in the creation of an online platform for illegal transactions, refusal to provide information on the storage of pornographic images of minors at the request of competent bodies, sale of equipment and programs to gain access to the automated data processing system in order to disrupt its functioning, fraud, provision of cryptological services and import of cryptological tools without their declaring.

However, the accusations are predominantly based on breaching the French law. For example, the Law on confidence in the⁶ digital economy stipulates the declaring of cryptologic tools, equipment, and programs to public authorities.

Some charges correlate with the norms enshrined in the DSA, such as the obligation to provide competent bodies with information (Art. 10), the obligation to protect minors (Art. 28), and so on.

It is worth noting, Telegram is not currently recognized as a “very large platform” under the DSA, as it has less than 45 million EU users per month. In addition, Telegram has appointed a legal representative in Belgium in compliance with the DSA. Therefore, for the time being, Telegram cannot yet be subject to investigations like those against Meta and TikTok for breaching the DSA. Nevertheless, soon Telegram's audience may reach more than 45 million people - after that the European Commission itself should define Telegram as a “very large online platform”. In this case, Telegram will have to ensure full compliance with the DSA within 4 months, otherwise it will lead to an investigation by the Commission itself.

Russia’s experience

Russia currently lacks regulation like the EU one, however, there is regulation in terms of monitoring and removal of information recognized as illegal from platforms. However, in Russia, the main method of combating the issue is blocking, and in some cases, for example, when information is disseminated in violation of the law (calls for mass riots, extremist activity, false reports of acts of terrorism), Roskomnadzor has the right to block the information resource without warning. In other cases, Roskomnadzor sends a preliminary request to remove the content, and if the content is not removed, only then does Roskomnadzor have the right to block it.

Moreover, there are special obligations for social networks to take measures to prevent the dissemination of information containing calls to commit criminal acts, terrorist activities, extremism, materials promoting cruelty, violence, etc. Social network must provide a communication channel to receive reports of prohibited information, establish user rules to limit the dissemination of such information, and ensure annual public reporting of monitoring results. For this purpose, social network must provide a communication channel to receive reports on prohibited information, establish user rules to limit the dissemination of such information, and ensure annual public reporting on the results of monitoring.

From the monitoring issue No. 8, August 2024. Download the full issue (PDF) · issue page at the Gaidar Institute