The Next Web: Big Tech gives EU access to thousands of user accounts each year. “Most of us share huge amounts of personal information online, and Big Tech companies are in many ways the gatekeepers of this data. But how much do they share with the authorities? And how often do governments request user data? According to new research by VPN provider SurfShark, the answer is a lot, and a lot again.”
Business Insider: Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue is breaking European rules about unfair business practices by failing to show its full cost to consumers right away, EU agency says. “Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue subscription is breaking European Union rules about unfair business practices, a consumer watchdog in the bloc told Insider. Specifically, the advertised subscription prices don’t factor in taxes, which violates consumer-protection laws in the 27-country union, a spokesperson for the watchdog said.”
EU Science Hub: A new tool maps the state of soil health across Europe. “EU-wide harmonised soil datasets and a novel methodology are among the main features of the soil health dashboard, a new tool of the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO), developed and run by the JRC. The dashboard supports the forthcoming European Commission proposal for a soil health law and indicators proposed by the Soil Mission of EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe.”
CNBC: Without us ‘there is no Google’: EU telcos ramp up pressure on Big Tech to pay for the internet. “Tensions between European telecommunications firms and U.S. Big Tech companies have crested, as telecom bosses mount pressure on regulators to make digital giants fork up some of the cost of building the backbone of the internet.”
Euronews: The EU tells Twitter to hire more human content moderators amid concerns of rise of illegal content. “The European Union and Twitter boss Elon Musk are currently butting heads over the social media giant’s content moderation policies. According to the Financial Times, EU regulators have asked Musk to hire more people to fact-check and review illegal content and disinformation.”
Balkan Insight: Europe Toughens Rules on Large Search Engines and Online Platforms. “Online services businesses, from hosting service providers to search engines such as Google or social networks like Meta and Twitter, will need to change the way they work in the European market when two new acts published in the EU Official Gazette, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, enter into effect. The first will regulate how providers manage the content published through them while the second focuses on their market behaviour, and their relations with competitors, users and the businesses operating through their platforms.”
Europol: 17 countries join forces to prevent chemical terrorism on European soil. “On 21 February, a large-scale Referral Action Day targeting the misuse of dangerous chemicals by terrorist groups took place at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague…. Investigators scoured the clear and dark web to identify and refer for removal propaganda and instructions on the use of high-risk chemicals, and the toxic gases they generate, in terrorist material and online fora. As a result, over 120 individual pieces of content were referred to 21 online service providers to secure their swift removal.”
Politico: Brussels sets out to fix the GDPR. “The European Commission will propose a new law before the summer that’s aimed at improving how EU countries’ privacy regulators enforce the GDPR, a newly published page on its website showed.”
Deutsche Welle: German regulator probes whether Musk’s tweets were boosted. “A US tech blog alleged that the Twitter CEO ordered engineers to increase the visibility of his tweets. Bavaria’s media regulator will check whether the social media giant violated a law to protect against media bias.”
Reuters: Google, Twitter, Meta, Apple face tougher EU online content rules. “The new rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) label companies with more than 45 million users as very large online platforms and subject to obligations such as risk management and external and independent auditing. They are also required to share data with authorities and researchers and adopt a code of conduct.”
WIRED: Want to Delete Your Twitter DMs? Good Luck With That. “People in Europe are making GDPR requests to have their private messages erased, but Elon’s team is ignoring them.”
Politico: Elon Musk’s Twitter fails first EU disinformation test. “Tech firms were asked to provide hundreds of detailed numbers and data on how they tackle falsehoods and foreign interference on their platforms. But Elon Musk’s social network Twitter was the only tech company that provided an incomplete report, short of data and with no information on what its plan to cooperate with fact-checkers is, according to the European Commission.”
Bloomberg: TikTok Reveals Russian Disinformation Network Targeting European Users. “TikTok Inc. identified a Russian disinformation network spreading war propaganda about Ukraine to more than a hundred thousand European users over the summer, the company disclosed on Thursday.”
Journal of Law and Courts: The CJEU Database Platform: Decisions and Decision-Makers. “This article presents the CJEU Database Platform, which provides scholars with an extensive collection of easily accessible, research-ready data on the the universe of cases, decisions, and judges at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).”
The Verge: Google services to offer more accurate information in compliance with EU. “Many of Google’s offerings will soon be updated to provide clear and accurate information in compliance with consumer protection laws in the EU. Announced by the European Commission on Thursday, the Alphabet-owned company has agreed to introduce changes to Google Store, Google Play Store, Google Hotels, and Google Flights following discussions with the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) in 2021.”
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