Salut la liste !
This month we wanted to bring you closer to the actual legislative
procedures of the DMA and DSA. Plus, a little update on artificial
intelligence (still nothing palpable).
This and previous reports on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
======
Digital Services Act
---
Commission: Strictly procedurally speaking the European Commission is
supposed to wait and see what the co-legislators are doing after it has
made its proposal. This was never going to happen. They are asking for
public, on-the-record feedback regarding the DSA [1] until 31 March and
staying very much involved. Wikimedia met (virtually) with the responsible
unit and presented our main points a couple of weeks ago. [2] There seems
to be some understanding that simply receiving a notice should not
automatically lead to actual knowledge of something infringing or illegal.
It seems like there could be an opening to re-word this bit. But for this
we need to convince a few Member States.
---
Council: The Council is going through the motion of unpacking the proposal,
which means that the European Commission is presenting its suggestions
while Member States are slowly positioning themselves. The responsible
working party is "Competitiveness and Growth (Internal Market)". [3] The
next meeting is on 5 March. [4] Now is the ideal moment to flag our main
points (“actual knowledge upon notice” & “enforcement of terms of services
by WMF Legal vs. community”). We made the rounds with the Permanent
Representations last week (again virtual). If you want to help, please get
in touch. Basically any outreach attempt a national government is welcome.
We got the pitch.
---
European Parliament: The EP’s negotiating team is ready. Christel
Schaldemose (S&D DK) will be rapporteur, shadows include Arba Kokalari (EPP
SE), Dita Charanzova (RE CZ), Alexandra Geese (G/EFA DE), Alessandra Basso
(ID IT), Adam Bielan (ECR PL) and Martin Schridewan (GUE DE). [5] Again,
this is a great moment to flag our main points. If you want to help in the
outreach, get in touch! :)
======
2030 Digital Targets
---
The European Commission published a roadmap for its 2030 Digital Targets. [6]
If this sounds a bit like strategy planning to you, it is! The idea is to
define targets in areas such as “education and skills”, “infrastructure and
capacity” as well as "government". These will then, possibly, be made a
priority in EU policy making and financing. We have until 9 March to give
feedback. If you have an idea what should be included, please reply on or
off-list.
======
Digital Markets Act
---
The European Commission dropped another chapter of the platform regulation
saga: the Digital Markets Act. The proposal consumes the two topics that
used to be treated separately: ex-ante rules for platforms and potential
new competition tools. [7]
Changes in competition laws are kind of a big deal, as they can be compared
to modifying road traffic rules: it takes a lot of effort to change
existing practices and adjust operations and companies into compliance.
Maybe that is the reason why the proposal does not include any major shift
of status quo - it's aim being rather to sanction the existing ecosystem.
There seems to be no major effort to bring more variety for users and more
equity for other business models.
Looking at the bright side, the main idea is to create additional rules for
“gatekeeper platforms'', because of their size and concentrated power on
the market. Things like building and self-preferencing are to be limited or
prohibited. Wikimedia projects are not included in the scope, because of
our small financial turnover.
Interoperability is the one thing we believe would really help open up
ecosystems and thus we would like to see it included. The proposal falls
short. We plan on supporting relevant amendments. [8]
======
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
---
It looks like both Brussels and Washington are looking for ways to work
together on Artificial Intelligence. [9][10] In parallel many, many, many
countries, alliances, associations are publishing positions in this field.
---
Most ideas are still vague, centering around common principles, such as
protecting human rights and democracy, boosting start-ups and government,
ensuring financing for research and opting for a risk-based approach to
regulating applications.
---
Our partners at European Digital Rights are running a campaign - “Reclaim
your Face” [11] - to limit or ban facial recognition in public spaces,
something that uses AI/ML technology at its core. Others are working on a
label for “trustworthy” AI. [12] We are watching this space.
======
Data Governance Act
---
The European Parliament shadows are meeting already and we are also making
the rounds. A draft committee report along with amendment proposals are
expected by mid April, committee vote (Industry, Trade and Research) is
planned for 1 July, plenary vote for mid September. [13]
The Portuguese Presidency has meanwhile presented a first draft to Council.
[14] Nothing of relevance to us in these changes. To refresh your memory:
We want to make very sure that platforms like ours and Europeana are
considered “general interest” and thus don’t fall under a (strict)
registration regime.
======
END
======
[1]
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…
[2]
https://wikimediapolicy.medium.com/how-europes-proposed-digital-services-ac…
[3]
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/council-eu/preparatory-bodies/working-pa…
[4]
https://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/EU/XXVII/EU/05/17/EU_51711/imfname_1104647…
[5]
https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?refere…
[6]
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…
[7]https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0842
[8]
https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?refere…
[9]
https://www.nscai.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/NSCAI-Draft-Final-Report-1…
[10]
https://dukakis.org/news-and-events/president-von-der-leyen-calls-for-trans…
[11]https://reclaimyourface.eu/
[12]
https://ethicsofalgorithms.org/2020/04/02/from-principles-to-practice-how-c…
[13]
https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?refere…
[14]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tar9VlNrc6hUZzvQQK7H2MYRPSKcB47i/view?usp=…