How the Digital Services Act enhances transparency online

Transparency reports

Starting from 17 February 2024, and at least once a year, all providers of intermediary services will have to publish reports on their content moderation. The reports will include information on their content moderation practices, such as the number of orders they received from all relevant national judicial or administrative authorities, of what measures their content moderation practices consist, the number of pieces of content taken down, and the accuracy and rate of error of their automated content moderation systems. Hosting providers, in addition, need to provide the number of notices platforms received from users and trusted flaggers whereas online platforms also have to provide information on out-of-court dispute settlements and the number of suspensions imposed on users for misusing their services. 

In view of additional risks relating to their activities, their size, and impact and of their additional obligations under this Regulation, further transparency requirements apply to VLOPs and VLOSEs. In particular, VLOPs and VLOSEs must publish their transparency reports at least every six months. The reports must also include information on their content moderation teams, including their qualifications and linguistic expertise. The VLOPs and VLOSEs designated on 25 April had to publish their first transparency reports at the latest two months from the date of application of the DSA to them.

Therefore, at the end of October 2023, VLOPs and VLOSEs published their first transparency reports:

To provide guidance on the matter and to ensure that the transparency reports of the providers are comparable, the DSA is in the course of adopting an implementing act on laying down templates for the transparency reports, including harmonized reporting periods.

Publication of monthly average user numbers

The DSA requires all providers of online platforms, except small and micro-enterprises, to publish the number of monthly users of their services in the EU and to update it every 6 months. This obligation took effect on 17 February 2023. The data coming from this self-assessment was fundamental to designate the first Very Large Operating Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) and will continue to be important in monitoring the landscape of intermediary service providers. The Commission may use also other information available to it when monitoring the number of monthly users of platform services in the EU.

DSA Transparency Database & Statement of reason

Since the end of August, Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) need to inform users whenever they remove or otherwise restrict access to their content and explain the reasons behind each moderation decision to the affected users in a “statement of reasons.” Statements of reasons must contain clear and specific information, spelling out the reason(s), and a legal or terms of service reference based on which content was removed or restricted. Once the DSA is fully in force in February 2024, the obligation to provide users with statements of reasons explaining content moderation decisions will apply to all hosting services.

On September 25, the Commission launched the DSA Transparency Database, which collects and makes publicly available statements of reasons almost in real time to enable scrutiny over the content moderation decisions of providers of online platforms. Everyone can access the DSA Transparency Database website and search for, read, and download the statements of reasons published there. 

Before submitting their statements of reasons to the DSA Transparency Database, online platforms, currently VLOPs only, need to ensure that they do not contain personal data.

Once the DSA is fully in force on 17 February 2024, all online platforms will need to submit all their statements of reasons to the DSA Transparency Database. 

Access the DSA Transparency Database

Data Access for researchers, the Digital Service Coordinators, and the Commission

The DSA sets out the obligation for VLOPs and VLOSEs to give access to certain data for the purpose of conducting research that contributes to the detection, identification and understanding of systemic risks in the EU, as well as to the assessment of adequacy, efficiency and impacts of risk mitigation measures taken by those providers.

Data access will be possible for:

• Digital Services Coordinators of the Member State where a provider of a VLOP or VLOSE is established and the Commission for the purpose of monitoring and assessing compliance with the DSA.
• Vetted researchers who fulfil the criteria set out in the Regulation, following an assessment by the relevant Digital Service Coordinator. Researchers will benefit from access to data, often including previously undisclosed or under-disclosed data, opening up new avenues for research, and increasing the potential of generating knowledge for the benefit of all.
• Researchers to gain access to publicly available data, if they meet the relevant conditions (such as independence from commercial interests, or the ability to uphold adequate security standards). Such researchers should already today be able to gain access to VLOPs/VLOSEs publicly accessible data without the intermediation of Digital Service Coordinators to conduct research that contributes to the detection, identification and understanding of systemic risks in the Union.

To further specify the data access mechanism for vetted researchers, the Commission is working on a delegated act, which is expected for mid-2024, following the consultation of the Board of Digital Services Coordinators and a period of public feedback. 

Audit reports

To assess their compliance with DSA obligations, VLOPs and VLOSEs must be subject, at least once a year, to independent audits. At the latest three months after the receipt of the audit reports, VLOPs and VLOSEs must publish their audit report together with reports setting out the risk assessment results, the implemented risk mitigation measures, the audit implementation, and information about their consultations that supported the risk assessment and risk mitigation measures. The mandatory disclosure of all these reports will bring further transparency and accountability and will offer a basis for public scrutiny. 

To provide guidance to VLOPs, VLOSEs and auditing organisations, in October 2023 the Commission published a delegated act detailing the framework for the preparation and issuance of audit reports and audit implementation reports. 

Digital Services Terms and Conditions Database

Online terms and conditions can be a source of confusion and frustration. They can be untransparent or unspecific, and prone to frequent changes, leaving users and businesses in the dark about their rights and obligations. This database leverages transparency obligations for digital services stemming from the DSA and the P2B Regulation to bring alleviation to this issue. It stores the terms and conditions of over 790 terms and conditions from more than 400 services. These entries include a variety of documents like Commercial Terms, Developer Terms, Live Policy, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and more. The database reviews the contracts in its repository multiple times per day across the web and automatically highlights new changes, enabling regulators, researchers, and users to keep up with the evolving digital landscape effortlessly. 

Access Digital Services Terms and Conditions Database