This end of the year has seen the EU institutions take a decisive stand in favor of internet users.
First of all, after days of debates, the AI Act was approved on Saturday 9 December, the first European law regulating artificial intelligence. And in the last few hours the effects of the Digital Service Act (DSA), approved on August 25th, have been felt: The EU will keep an eye on Pornhub and two other porn sites, namely Stripchat and XVideos, which will have to undergo more rigorous controls. Let’s see why.
The EU will impose stricter rules on Pornhub
Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos, three of the most popular porn sites globally and also on our continent, have therefore ended up under observation by the EU.
The European Commission simply applied the DSA rules to these three sites as well, which provide for greater controls for sites with more than 45 million users.
The norm of the Dsa
We remember that The Digital Service Act is a European Union regulation that aims to make the internet more secureacting in particular on three aspects: illegal content, advertising and disinformation.
We read on the European Commission website that “online platforms and large search engines pose particular risks for the spread of illegal content and the damage they can cause to society. Specific rules are foreseen for platforms that reach more than 10% of the 450 million European consumers.”
And here’s the thing: the EU has added Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos to the list of 19 platforms (considered “systemically at risk”) with more than 45 million users.
The rules for these sites include the obligation to cooperate with national authorities, to remove content gradually reported as illegal but also to adopt preventive measures. In addition to the obligation of transparency on its activities (both content moderation and advertising), independent external controls and limits on the use of advertising based on sensitive information.
The war of numbers
In reality, in a statement last February, Pornhub had made public the number of its average monthly users, which would have been 33 million.
But Reuters explained that the Commission can also draw from third-party sources, as long as they are fully reliable.
A lot of them
For platforms that do not align with the Digital Service Act rules, the risk is of incurring fines that can reach 6% of the global turnover, in addition to the ban on operating in the territory of the European Union.
Now the three pornographic sites have 4 months to comply with the requirements of the DSA.
The statements
Thierry Breton, EU commissioner for the internal market, spoke out about the EU’s move to include Pornhub and two other porn sites on the special surveillance list.
Breton said that “creating a safer online environment for our children is a DSA enforcement priority.”. But in his statements we should not look for a reference to the peculiarity of the contents of the three sites, but rather an application of the DSA rules for platforms with more than 45 million users.
The DSA and the X platform
Elon Musk has certainly noticed that the Digital Service Act has become fully operational.
X, the former Twitter, was among the 19 platforms considered “systemically risky”. And in the last few hours the European Commission has started an infringement procedure against the platform. We read the accusations that appeared in an official note: “The European Commission has started a formal procedure to assess whether X may have violated the DSA in areas related to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and access to data for researchers.
Based on the preliminary investigation conducted so far including on the basis of an analysis of the risk assessment report submitted by , among others, concerned the dissemination of illegal content in the context of the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, the Commission has decided to open a formal infringement procedure against X under the Digital Services Law.”
