Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1506723
10 WORLD 31.8.2023 WHILE the European Commission's directorate in charge of implementing the Digital Services Act (DSA) has yet to be finalised, the new team is already besieged by challenges, including legal complaints, NGOs' demands and al- leged technical limitations. Since 25 August, the DSA, the flag- ship new EU regulation looking to reg- ulate against online harms, has been enforced on a list of 19 'very large on- line platforms' (VLOP) and 'very-large online search engines' (VLOSEs). ey must comply with a detailed list of requirements to "make illegal online what is illegal offline", according to the 2019 wish of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. One of the first challenges the new team faces is a letter, seen by EURAC- TIV, sent on Tuesday (29 August) by Alexandre Roure, public policy direc- tor at the Computer & Communica- tions Industry Association, an industry association. Addressed to Prabhat Agarwal, head of the Unit for Digital Services at the European Commission, the letter questions the legality of the Commis- sion's Transparency Database. is database is a repository desig- nated platforms must populate with relevant data when they take down content. Yet, according to Roure, the Com- mission's database "require providers to fill numerous additional individual data fields", which are "incompatible with the corresponding legal require- ments under the DSA" and "interfere in a disproportionate manner with the fundamental freedoms" of its organisa- tion members. According to him, the Commission should "reconsider its approach", im- prove its database, and "grant an ap- propriate grace and testing period of a least eight weeks". A Commission spokesperson told EURACTIV that the Commission ex- plained how it mapped the legal ele- ments of the DSA onto the Database on 16 August, explaining that the da- tabase requirements do reflect the new legislation. e spokesperson added that the da- tabase is currently in a testing phase with the platforms, "until its go-live date, scheduled for 25 September 2023" and that the testing phase "is not a grace period". He added that "they will reply" to the letter "in due course". Influence challenge A week earlier, on 23 August, a group of 56 civil society organisations sent an open letter to the European Com- mission, urging it to "require Big Tech companies to publish robust and com- prehensive election plans outlining publicly how they intend to mitigate 'systemic risks' in the context of up- coming national and EU elections". A Commission spokesperson told EURACTIV that VLOPs will "have to publish their first transparency reports at the end of October". is spokesperson said that "nothing in the DSA prevents platforms from making their reports public earlier", adding that the Commission would welcome such decisions. Technical challenge In addition, Roure shared concerns about the DSA Transparency Data- base interface which "does not pro- vide for 'batch upload' feature", up- loading multiple files in an automated manner. erefore platforms cannot feed the database with multiple submissions in a single request, eventually creating a bottleneck, as some have hundreds of thousands of decisions made per min- ute. "Requiring that each decision be in- dividually sent to the database" is dis- proportionate and unjustifiable, Roure said in his letter. e Commission spokesperson did not comment directly on the batch upload issue, but emphasised that the database had been set up following a wide consultation through an online survey. Operation challenges On top of those challenges, the new directorate needs to create an efficient and credible working environment with authorities designated by the member states. is will supervise all the non-very large online platforms and search engines on their national markets by 24 February 2024. e new team is also facing lawsuits from Amazon and Zalando, who are contesting their categorisation un- der the definition of "very-large" on- line platforms, which were filed at the Court of Justice of the European Union in June and July. A Commission official told EURAC- TIV on condition of anonymity that a specific department had been dedicat- ed to following the lawsuits but that, for the time being, these two compa- nies "will have to completely enforce the DSA". Additionally, the new team will keep its list of very large online platforms and search engines up to date. Another Commission official told EURACTIV that a specialised team was currently reviewing data in order to figure out if other services should be impacted by the DSA in the near future. Challenges emerge as EU Commission forms team to implement DSA When the Commission conducted "stress tests" at a number of "very large online platforms" (VLOP) headquarters during the summer "no service was then completely compliant" with the DSA