Big internet platforms will have to open up their algorithms for European regulators to scrutinise, as part of the region’s upcoming proposals to regulate digital services. Platforms will have to provide more information on how their algorithms work, submit regular reports on the content moderation tools they use and their effectiveness, and explain why users see certain ads, Margrethe Vestager, the EU Competition Commissioner, said last week. Vestager was talking about Europe’s Digital Services Act, a draft of which is scheduled to be out in December. The DSA package is an attempt by the EU to modernise the legal framework surrounding digital services in its jurisdiction. It proposes rules that will decide the responsibilities and legal obligations of digital services — and per Vestager’s suggestion, algorithmic accountability will be a major part of the proposal, since platforms’ algorithms can often be a “black box”, making decisions in ways that no one really understands, not even the people who design them. “So the rules we’re preparing would give all digital services a duty to cooperate with regulators. And the biggest platforms would have to provide more information on the way their algorithms work, when regulators ask for it. They’d also have to give regulators and researchers access to the data they hold – including ad archives,” Vestager said. This development comes when decisions made by algorithms are being around the world, with lawmakers in several countries including in India calling for rules on algorithmic accountability. Recently, a UK-based trade group representing…
