David McGarry on European Online Censorship

Our guest is David McGarry. He is Research Director at an organization called the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. He is a pundit and a frequent contributor to magazines and news sites on a wide range of topics. He usually writes about things tied to technology, government accountability and consumer impact.

Lately, he’s been weighing in on a new law in Europe that seems targeted toward American companies and Americans online. It’s called the Digital Services Act.

The EU’s Digital Services Act (or DSA) was enacted in 2022 and just went into effect. It seeks to regulate online platforms by addressing illegal content, including hate speech and disinformation. How do you define hate speech and disinformation? That’s one of the things we’ll be talking about today.

The Digital Services Act applies to tech sites that have more than 45 million users in Europe. These sites include Twitter, or X, Meta, and Google. It requires them to conduct more comprehensive “content moderation, transparency in algorithms, and user tools to flag harmful content.”

Companies that don’t comply can be fined up 6% of their global revenue, or they may face bans in Europe.