A European Union (EU) law called the Digital Services Act (DSA), which recently went into effect, could end up limiting Americans’ speech online.
The law, which went into effect on August 25, requires “very large online platforms” (VLOPs) to increase content moderation by cracking down on “disinformation” and other supposedly harmful content, among numerous other provisions. Large tech companies’ compliance with the law could drastically increase censorship in the U.S. in addition to Europe as the DSA incentivizes platforms to implement the moderation worldwide, experts told the DCNF.
“The DSA is just the latest example of the European Union targeting American tech companies with burdensome regulations that seek to export a more censorious content moderation regime around the globe,” James Czerniawski, senior policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity, told the DCNF.
The DSA applies to companies with more than 45 million users in the EU, including American companies such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and YouTube, according to the European Commission (EC). These VLOPs “must comply with the most stringent rules of the DSA,” or face financial penalties of up to 6% of their global annual revenue.
