Google has said that it is important that regulation keeps pace with change and the company supports Europe’s effort to create a more responsible, innovative, and helpful Internet for everyone.
As the deadline to submit responses to the new European Digital Services Act (DSA) ends on September 8, the tech giant said that creating a more responsible, innovative, and helpful internet is a societal challenge.
“We acknowledge the need for companies, governments, and civil society to work together towards reaching our shared goals. That’s why we support modernizing rules for the digital age,” Kent Walker, SVP of Global Affairs at Google, said in a blog post on Thursday.
Apple is also changing how it pays developer fees on the App Store in the UK. The move came after countries including the UK, France, Italy, and Turkey implemented digital services levies, which force tech giants to pay more taxes, reports the CNBC.
Last month, Amazon also said it was increasing charges on sellers after the UK government approved its digital tax.
Walker said that the Google response focuses on three key areas.
“A more responsible internet, a more innovative internet, and a more helpful internet,” he said.
“In order to ensure that fundamental rights are respected, it’s important for the DSA to focus on capturing illegal content, so lawful speech isn’t caught in the net.
“However, this should not prevent further actions on lawful-but-harmful content, such as cyber-bullying, through self- and co-regulatory initiatives, such as the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation and the EU Code of Conduct on Hate Speech, both of which Google joined from the start,” he explained.
“The DSA should support constructive transparency measures while ensuring that platforms can continue to protect user privacy, ensure commercially sensitive information is not revealed and prevent bad actors from gaming the system”.
To foster innovation, the DSA should reflect the wide range of services offered by the tech industry.
“No two services are the same and the new act should be rooted in objectives and principles that can be applied, as appropriate, across this broad, diverse ecosystem,” Walker said.
“New rules should encourage new and improved features and products which help European consumers get things done and access information quickly and easily”.
As new rules are being evaluated, he said, the question is not whether data mobility or data access should be facilitated, but “how to achieve their benefits without sacrificing product quality or innovation incentives”.
