The European Commission under the Digital Services Act (DSA) is enforcing tech giants and social media apps to be more transparent regarding their policies to protect children on their platforms. The DSA signed in 2022, has called out companies like Meta, Snap, YouTube, and TikTok.
Yesterday, the commission asked TikTok and YouTube to comment on how they plan to ensure child safety on their platforms. A TikTok spokesperson replied that the company is working with the commission regarding the matter, whereas YouTube has yet to comment.
While the EU asked YouTube and TikTok to share their policies by November 30, according to Reuters, Meta and Snap have been asked to share them by December 1.
These regulations come under the DSA, which is helping the EU ensure online safety and that tech giants are doing more to put an end to illegal activities on their platforms. It also calls for a complete ban on advertising to kids.
Furthermore, with the DSA in place, the commission has the power to investigate companies and their operations if they are not satisfied with the responses provided by the companies. The EU can also charge fines as high as 6% of their global turnover.
The commission wrote in yesterday’s press release:
“Pursuant to Article 74 (2) of the DSA, the Commission can impose fines for incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information in response to a request for information. In case of failure to reply, the Commission may decide to request the information by decision. In this case, failure to reply by the deadline could lead to the imposition of periodic penalty payments.”
In October 2023, the DSA called out Meta and TikTok to address disinformation to mitigate the spread of violent content, hate speech, and terrorism-related content on their apps. This came about a week after the commission asked Twitter (now known as “X”) to do the same.