Digital economy
Trump victory can obstruct EU tech regulation
Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, risks being fined by the EU for breaching the Digital Services ACT (DSA). X was charged in July, accused of lacking advertising transparency, deceitful verification of users, and limiting researchers’ access to data. Also, last year, the commission opened an investigation over concerns of the spread of hateful messages on X, after the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
But the question is whether the EU will be willing and capable of holding Musk accountable, as he becomes a power player in President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration.
Musk was part of Donald Trump’s campaign and has been tapped by Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, together with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
The ties between Musk and Trump could become a problem for EU regulators, said Alexandra Geese, a German Green member of the European Parliament, on X. ”Both want deregulation & align with far-right narratives labelling the DSA as ´censorship´. The infernal duo is on a collision course with Europe’s pro-democracy regulation”.
Jan Penfrat, senior policy adviser at digital rights group EDRi, said to Politico, concerning this topic, that European politicians need to ”reclaim power by challenging big tech’s power grab”.
In December, Financial Times published an interview with the EU’s new tech chief, Henna Virkkunen, who stroke a more conciliatory tone towards Elon Musk than her predecessor Thierry Breton. She told the newspaper that she would not single out any Big Tech company accused of breaching EU rules.
(Trump’s win will test the EU’s tech crackdown on Musk’s X)
(EU tech chief strikes conciliatory tone with Elon Musk)
New report: AI in the audiovisual sector
The report by the European Audiovisual Observatory presented on 22 October addresses both opportunities and challenges that arise as AI is used for audiovisual content creation, distribution, and consumption.
Part one describes current use of AI in the audiovisual industries and the challenges it creates, such as job displacement and concerns over the regulation of AI-generated content.
Part two focuses on data protection and copyright issues and how the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the newly enacted AI Act aim to safeguard personal information. It also addresses international data transfers and compares EU and US approaches to data privacy.
Part three illustrates five major challenges that AI poses to the audiovisual industry, such as questions concerning authorship and liability, and transparency.
Finally, the fourth part examines the future of regulation in this field and ethical and societal dilemmas that we will face in coming years.
(AI and the audiovisual sector: navigating the current legal landscape)
Provisional findings from study on DSA knowledge
The Resilient Media for Democracy in the Digital Age project (ReMed) is expected to present a new report in December, which will be the basis for a white paper with recommendations on implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Vito Laterza, associate professor at the University of Agder and leader of ReMeD’s methodology coordination group, has already shared some of the study’s provisional findings.
The research, which has consisted of what the researchers call mini-ethnographies with professional journalists, alternative media content producers, and citizens, shows that the participants, including journalists, know very little about the DSA.
Another provisional finding concerns the interaction between participants, on the one hand, and social media platforms and search engines, on the other. Many participants are not alert to how algorithms work, or they are not interested in the topic.
ReMeD is expected to publish a DSA-related white paper by the end of this year.
(An interview with Vito Laterza about ReMeD’s research methodology)
