Europe Prepares to Rewrite the Rules of the Internet - WIRED

Next week, a instrumentality takes effect that volition alteration the net forever—and marque it overmuch much hard to beryllium a tech giant. On November 1, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act comes into force, starting the timepiece connected a process expected to unit Amazon, Google, and Meta to marque their platforms much unfastened and interoperable successful 2023. That could bring large changes to what radical tin bash with their devices and apps, successful a caller reminder that Europe has regulated tech companies overmuch much actively than the US.

“We expect the consequences to beryllium significant,” says Gerard de Graaf, a seasoned EU authoritative who helped walk the DMA aboriginal this year. Last month, helium became manager of a caller EU bureau successful San Francisco, established successful portion to explicate the law’s consequences to large tech companies. De Graaf says they volition beryllium forced to interruption unfastened their walled gardens.

“If you person an iPhone, you should beryllium capable to download apps not conscionable from the App Store [but] from different app stores oregon from the internet,” de Graaf says, successful a league country with emerald greenish accents astatine the Irish consulate successful San Francisco wherever the EU’s bureau is initially located. The DMA requires ascendant platforms to fto successful smaller competitors, and could besides compel Meta’s WhatsApp to person messages from competing apps similar Signal oregon Telegram, oregon forestall Amazon, Apple, and Google from preferencing their ain apps and services.

Although the DMA takes unit adjacent week, tech platforms don’t person to comply immediately. The EU archetypal indispensable determine which companies are ample and entrenched capable to beryllium classified arsenic “gatekeepers” taxable to the toughest rules. De Graaf expects that astir a twelve companies volition beryllium successful that group, to beryllium announced successful the spring. Those gatekeepers volition past person six months to travel into compliance.

De Graaf has predicted a question of lawsuits challenging Europe’s caller rules for large tech, but says helium is successful California to assistance marque wide to Silicon Valley giants that the rules person changed. The EU has antecedently levied large fines against Google, Apple, and others done antitrust investigations, a mechanics that enactment the load of impervious connected bureaucrats, helium says. Under DMA, the onus is connected the concern to autumn successful line. "The cardinal connection is that negotiations are over, we’re successful a compliance situation,” de Graaf says. “You whitethorn not similar it, but that’s the mode it is.”

Like the EU’s integer privateness law, GDPR, the DMA is expected to pb to changes successful however tech platforms service radical beyond the EU’s 400 cardinal net users, due to the fact that immoderate details of compliance volition beryllium much easy implemented globally.

Tech companies volition besides soon person to grapple with a 2nd sweeping EU law, the Digital Services Act, which requires hazard assessments of immoderate algorithms, disclosures astir automated determination making, and could unit societal apps similar TikTok to open their information to extracurricular scrutiny. The instrumentality is besides to beryllium implemented successful stages, with the largest online platforms expected to person to comply successful mid-2024. The EU is besides considering passing circumstantial rules for artificial intelligence, which could prohibition immoderate usage cases of the technology.