Brussels: The design of European rules demanding technology companies to do more to overcome illegal online content can be a global gold standard for safer online worlds if they are enhanced, Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen told EU parliamentarians on Monday.
HAUGEN, a former Facebook employee who works as a product manager in the company’s civil information team, has accused the giant social media repeatedly prioritizing the return on hate clamps and wrong information.
His testimony to the European Parliament Committee came after stopping in London, Lisbon and Berlin, and at the time of EU parliamentarians debated whether to determine the digital service law (DSA) proposed by the Head of Antitrust EU Margrette Restager.
“The current digital service law before this parliament has the potential to become a global gold standard,” Haugen said.
“It can inspire other countries, including myself, to pursue new rules that will protect our democracy but the law must be strong and strictly.
If not, we will lose this once on one occasion to harmonize the future of technology and democracy,” he said to EU parliamentarians.
Haugen said the DSA must be expanded to include online content that violates the platform terms and conditions, and must force the platform to be responsible for the risks outside the spread of illegal content such as election manipulation and disinformation regarding the hazards of mental health.
Haugen said news media content should not be excluded from the rules because the disinformation campaign can still play the system by exploiting the digital platform used by publishers.
In a blog post ahead of EU hearing, Facebook rejects Haugen’s claim that he prioritizes the benefits of the safety of users.
“Contrary to the latest claims about our company, we always have commercial incentives to remove dangerous content from our platform,” Monika Bickert, Vice President of Content Policy, Writing on a blog.
He said Facebook would spend more than $ 5 billion this year on safety and security.
Head of the UE Industrial Thierry Breton, who met Haugen before Monday, criticized the increase in lobby by technology companies for the draft rules and urged parliamentarians against the scope of DSA to improve their deliberation.
“Speed ​​is everything.
We need a DSA / DMA package adopted in the first half of 2022,” he said after the meeting.
The DMA law, or digital market, is another landmark law planned in the EU which sets Do’s and Don’ts for global technology companies.