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Dissemination of “deepfakes”, sale of fake medicines, exploitation of sensitive personal data for advertising targeting… Brussels continued on Thursday a vast turn of the screw against large online platforms, targeting in particular the Chinese TikTok and AliExpress.
This toughening comes against a backdrop of tension between Washington and Beijing, which denounced “thug methods” on Thursday, after a vote in the American Congress reinforcing the threat of a ban on TikTok in the United States. Foreign applications including American ones like Facebook or X are inaccessible in China without tools to circumvent censorship.
The European Commission has announced the opening of a “formal investigation” against the online commerce site AliExpress, a subsidiary of the Chinese giant Alibaba. He is suspected of not having respected his obligations in the fight against the sale of dangerous products – such as fake medicines.
This is the third investigation opened under the new Digital Services Regulation (DSA) intended to better protect consumers against illegal practices by internet giants.
“The DSA is running at full speed and our teams responsible for enforcing it across Europe are fully mobilized“, welcomed the European Digital Commissioner, Thierry Breton.
The European Commission also demanded explanations on Thursday from eight major online services, including TikTok, Facebook, Google, YouTube and X, on how they manage the risks linked to the distribution of manipulated content (“deepfakes”).
Concern for the elections
Three months before the European elections, Brussels is particularly concerned about the impact on the electoral campaign of these sounds, photos and videos rigged using generative artificial intelligence.
Russia in particular is regularly accused of attempts to manipulate opinion in Western countries through the promotion of falsified information on social networks.
The warning also concerns Instagram, Snapchat and the Bing search engine.
“We want to alert and equip the platforms so that they are best prepared for all kinds of incidents that could arise during the next elections, in particular, of course, the election of the European Parliament“, a European official explained to journalists.
The Commission also requested explanations on Thursday from the professional social network LinkedIn, from the American group Microsoft. It is suspected of exploiting certain sensitive personal data of its users (sexual orientation, political opinions, etc.) for the purposes of advertising targeting, which is formally prohibited by the DSA.
The new regulation also imposes new transparency obligations regarding the parameters used for advertising targeting.
This request for information as well as that concerning “deepfakes” are not an indictment at this stage. They constitute the first step in a procedure which could lead to the opening of a formal investigation, then to heavy fines in the event of proven infringements.
Threat of heavy fines
The regulation on digital services has applied since the end of August to the most powerful online platforms such as X, TikTok as well as the main services of Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Apple, Google, Microsoft or Amazon.
In total, 22 very large internet players, including three pornographic sites (Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos), were placed under the direct surveillance of the European Commission, which recruited more than a hundred experts in Brussels to assume its new role as digital policeman.
Violators face fines of up to 6% of their global annual turnover, or even a ban on operating in Europe in the event of serious and repeated violations.
The new legislationdoes not only concern hate speech or disinformation (…). It also aims to ensure the removal of illegal or dangerous products sold in the EU by e-commerce platforms“, underlined Thierry Breton regarding the procedure against AliExpress.
The Commission had already opened two first formal investigations which respectively targeted X (formerly Twitter) suspected of not sufficiently combating disinformation, and TikTok, owned by the Chinese ByteDance, for alleged breaches of its obligations to protect minors.
As part of the three investigations against X, TikTok and AliExpress, the EU executive is working to collect evidence, for example by sending requests for additional information, conducting interviews or inspections. No time limit is set for this type of investigation.