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You Should Be Very Worried About the Digital Services Act

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You Should Be Very Worried About the Digital Services Act
Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age and European Commissioner for Competition, and EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton participate in a press conference on the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec. 15, 2020. Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock
David Thunder
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Commentary
Article 11 of The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which replicates a part of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, protects the right of European citizens to “hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers,” and affirms that “the freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.” Sadly, the fate of freedom of expression in Europe now very much hangs in the balance, as the European Union has just enacted a law that empowers the European Commission to significantly restrict the ability of citizens to use digital platforms to engage in robust and sincere democratic discourse.
David Thunder
David Thunder
Author
David Thunder is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Navarra’s Institute for Culture and Society in Pamplona, Spain, and a recipient of the prestigious Ramón y Cajal research grant (2017–2021, extended through 2023), awarded by the Spanish government to support outstanding research activities. Prior to his appointment to the University of Navarra, he held several research and teaching positions in the United States, including visiting assistant professor at Bucknell and Villanova, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Princeton University’s James Madison Program. Dr. Thunder earned his BA and MA in philosophy at University College Dublin, and his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Notre Dame.
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