Europe is changing social media for the better — the US can do it, too

In just a few short weeks, social media experiences will improve for users in Europe.

Aug. 25 is C-Day — the compliance deadline for the world’s largest social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Tik Tok. The European Union has spelled out corporate responsibilities for cracking down on illegal, harmful and hateful content under its landmark Digital Services Act, the latest effort to hold Big Tech accountable and make social media safer for young people, voters and minorities.

This milestone should send a signal of hope across the Atlantic, that we can implement real oversight and regulation with teeth.

For the U.S., where legislation and regulation have languished, it should offer both a blueprint and encouragement on how to move forward. Cooperation between the EU and U.S. would go a long way in setting better, democratic, global standards.

Rife with disinformation and hate speech, social media platforms are long overdue for a reckoning. From pushing anorexia content toward kids to axing election integrity teams in Africa and promoting “voter fraud” hunting games in the U.S., to revoking bans on antisemitic conspiracy theorists, facilitating threats against LGBTQ+ people, and profiting from white supremacist content, social media platforms have spent the last year regressing.

These effects are worse outside the U.S. In Myanmar, Facebook fueled violence and a military coup. In Turkey, Twitter censored political opponents during a critical election. The harms from insufficient content moderation are countless. Tech platforms have been unable to address the proliferation of deepfakes and AI-driven spam and false news, in spite of growing concern.

One urgent priority is preventing a global catastrophe for the 2024 election year. In the coming year, over 65 countries worldwide will hold elections, many of which may determine the future stability of major democracies. From the U.S. and the EU to Mexico, India and Indonesia, 2 billion people are set to head to the polls in 2024, the largest projected election turnout this century. Yet ahead of these coming elections, tech companies are “walking back policies meant to curb misinformation,” and in some cases, dropping all safeguards and protections against political disinformation. Cost-cutting has resulted in layoffs for trust and safety teams, as well as ethics teams. This is bad timing for such irresponsible behavior.

Thankfully, the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) offers a sense of what solutions can look like.

The ambitious law seeks to protect the rights of users, with specific protections for minors and a ban on targeted advertising based on data profiles containing protected categories such as race, ethnicity and political views. If companies do end up propagating illegal content or misinformation, they will be held accountable. The DSA also beckons new transparency rules allowing academics to do much-needed independent research.

Until now, both the EU and the U.S. have had policies that exempted intermediary services from liability, such as Section 230. In light of the many harms to teenagers’ mental health, society’s resilience in case of a new pandemic, and the overall eroding trust in democracy, these exemptions are out of touch with our new realities. Tech platforms, once start-ups seeking to disrupt, are now monopolists with enormous power.

The DSA is structured to meet the regulatory demands of the modern internet. By targeting “intermediary services,” which encompass social media platforms, search engines and online marketplaces, the law scrutinizes how large tech companies handle user-generated content. The DSA encourages stronger detection, flagging and removal of illegal content, with harsher penalties for service providers who don’t comply.

Big Tech, of course, will continue to fight regulation that affects its bottom line. It channels staggering amounts of money into lobbying our government, so that it can operate without oversight. In political donations alone, members of Congress accepted nearly $60 million between 2020 and 2022, according to the Facebook Receipts. With leverage like this, how can our democracies win?

The answer is for the U.S. and its leaders to ensure that necessary guardrails are in place, as we did in Europe. The last decade has proven to us that if we give tech companies an inch, they’ll take a mile. We can’t let them control our information ecosystem, and certainly, we shouldn’t allow them to become the arbitrators of truth in the most consequential election year in world history.

The DSA is a milestone that should inspire Americans to finally act and rein in runaway social media harms. If the U.S. joins with similar measures as the EU, together, as transatlantic partners, we can seek to build a larger global coalition. After all, for better or for worse, the U.S. has an outsized influence on our modern internet. With great power comes great responsibility.

Marietje Schaake is a former member of the EU Parliament, international policy director at the Cyber Policy Center at Stanford University and a member of the Real Facebook Oversight Board.