Automattic, Mozilla, Twitter and Vimeo urge EU to beef up user controls to help tackle 'legal-but …

Automattic, Mozilla, Twitter and Vimeo have penned an open letter to EU lawmakers urging them to ensure that a major reboot of the bloc’s digital regulations doesn’t end up bludgeoning freedom of expression online. The draft Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act are due to be unveiled by the Commission next week, though the EU lawmaking process means it’ll likely be years before either becomes law. The Commission has said the legislative proposals will set clear responsibilities for how platforms must handle illegal and harmful content, as well as applying a set of additional responsibilities on the most powerful players which are intended to foster competition in digital markets. It also plans to legislate around political ads transparency — under a Democracy Action Plan — but not til Q3 next year. In their joint letter, entitled ‘Crossroads for the open Internet’, the four tech firms argue that: “The Digital Services Act and the Democracy Action Plan will either renew the promise of the Open Internet or compound a problematic status quo – by limiting our online environment to a few dominant gatekeepers, while failing to meaningfully address the challenges preventing the Internet from realising its potential.” On the challenge…
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