DSA Delegated Act
New Data Access rules are here – but will they work in practice?
The EU Commission has published the delegated act on data access under the Digital Services Act (DSA). How much it will achieve remains to be seen in practice.
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The publication of this Delegated Act is a long-awaited step forward for research into online risks in the EU. If it works effectively, it allows researchers to access to internal data of very large online platforms and search engines which is relevant to understanding risks in the EU. But in the end, only when researchers actually try using it we will see, whether this “if condition” will actually be fulfilled.
The way the Delegated Act is written is quite promising, as it means researchers can work with their national regulators to get data from the platforms in a privacy-preserving way. However, we have already seen that many platforms have shown disappointing levels of compliance with various articles of the DSA, from public data provisions to risk assessments. The regulators will need to be firm with platforms to ensure these promising rules actually help researchers to identify and protect online risks.
