Digital Services Act
In plain wordsThe EU law that sets rules for online platforms and search engines — how they handle illegal content, explain their recommendation algorithms and manage the risks their services create for society.
Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on a single market for digital services, which sets layered obligations for online intermediaries, hosting services and platforms: notice-and-action procedures for illegal content, statements of reasons for content moderationcontent moderation, n.: Checking what people post, or what an AI produces, and removing, limiting or labeling whatever breaks the rules or the law — done by people, by AI, or by both together. decisions, complaint handling and transparency reporting. Platforms must explain the main parameters of their recommender systemsrecommender system, n.: Software that guesses which songs, products, posts or jobs you are most likely to want and shows those first, as when a video app lines up the next clip or a shop suggests an add-on.. Very large online platforms and search engines — those with at least 45 million monthly active users in the EU — must also assess and mitigate systemic risks such as the spread of illegal content, threats to fundamental rights, electoral integrity and public health, and harms to minors, including risks from generative AI and deepfakesdeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened.; offer at least one recommender option not based on profiling; undergo independent audits; and give vetted researchers data access. The Commission supervises the largest services directly, with fines of up to 6% of worldwide annual turnover.
The platform's risk assessment under the Digital Services Act had to cover AI-generated election content.
Origin
Proposed by the European Commission in December 2020 together with the Digital Markets Act; adopted on 19 October 2022, applying to the largest platforms from August 2023 and to all intermediaries from 17 February 2024.
Usage note
The EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models. treats AI integrated into very large platforms as covered largely by the DSA's risk management; the 2026 Digital OmnibusDigital Omnibus, prop. n.: A European Union package, proposed in 2025, that simplified and delayed parts of its digital rules — above all pushing back the strictest requirements of the EU AI Act by more than a year. gave the AI OfficeAI Office, prop. n.: The European Commission's team that oversees the EU AI Act, especially the rules for the largest AI models, and coordinates how the law is applied across Europe. supervision of such AI systems.
Related
- recommender systemrecommender system, n.: Software that guesses which songs, products, posts or jobs you are most likely to want and shows those first, as when a video app lines up the next clip or a shop suggests an add-on.
- content moderationcontent moderation, n.: Checking what people post, or what an AI produces, and removing, limiting or labeling whatever breaks the rules or the law — done by people, by AI, or by both together.
- EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models.
- deepfakedeepfake, n.: A fake but realistic video, photo or voice recording made with AI that puts words in a real person's mouth or shows them in a scene that never happened.
- disinformationdisinformation, n.: Deliberate falsehoods or distortions dressed up as fact, for example from a government or campaign trying to sway an election or sow distrust.
- engagement optimizationengagement optimization, n.: Designing apps and AI to keep people clicking, watching or chatting for as long as possible because that earns money, even when it is not what is good for them.
Defined in law or standards
Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Art. 27 (recommender transparency), Arts. 33–35 (very large platforms; systemic risks), Art. 38, Art. 74 (fines)
Mentioned in
content moderationcontent moderation, n.: Checking what people post, or what an AI produces, and removing, limiting or labeling whatever breaks the rules or the law — done by people, by AI, or by both together., dark patterndark pattern, n.: A trick in the design of an app, website or chatbot that nudges you into doing something you didn't mean to, like signing up for a subscription that is hard to cancel., Section 230Section 230, prop. n.: A 1996 US law that generally protects websites and apps from being sued over what their users post, and lets them remove content in good faith. Whether it protects what AI chatbots themselves say is unsettled.