For three years now, the Arcom teams have been in close contact with the major online platforms to closely observe their moderation policies. Fourteen platforms, including Meta, Twitter, YouTube, and now TikTok, complied this year with the drafting of a report on the basis of an Arcom questionnaire to explain the means implemented to fight against the manipulation of information.
Arcom presented this Monday, November 28 a summary of these reports to the press. Despite an improvement observed in the amount of information declared by the platforms, Arcom still observes a “very heterogeneous” level of transparency and the absence, in certain cases such as TikTok, of encrypted and tangible data. This finding is substantially similar to the Arcom report drawn up in 2021, which took into account a smaller scope, in the absence of TikTok and Pinterest at the time.
For Roch-Olivier Maistre, the very contrasting participation of the web giants reveals a hollow recognition of the authority of the French regulator. It points to the “limits” of the law of December 22, 2018 relating to the fight against the manipulation of information, which does not give real “power of sanction” to Arcom. “It’s a perfectly understandable party for the legislator, because it’s a very complex subject which goes to the heart of freedom of expression,” declared the president of Arcom.
To truly “scale up”, Arcom is planning to implement the Digital Services Act (DSA). With the support of the European Commission and the Member States, the regulator hopes to be able to do more. “With the adoption of the DSA, this regulation will in future be deployed not at European level, but with European level” maintains Roch-Olivier Maistre.
The pitfalls of collective play
The European text on digital services should also make it possible to involve researchers more, by giving them access to platform data. This system is widely supported by the Arcom teams, who identify a real lack today, with a few exceptions.
But all is not black in this assessment of the law of 2018, affirms Benoît Loutrel, member of Arcom, who chairs the working group “Supervision of online platforms”. “We have built relationships of trust. Arcom was thus able to start working with platforms and various networks within the State, such as Viginum and PEReN,” he says.
Ditto, the law of 2021 confirming respect for the principles of the Republic has made it possible, according to him, “to wipe the plaster” in the fight against hateful content. Applied in France until December 31, 2023, this law was written “in anticipation of the DSA”, which will take over on these subjects on this date, specifies Benoît Loutrel.
Now, all the difficulty will be to play collective, recognizes however Benoît Loutrel. “There is a long way to go. The greatest danger will be to play a single game together” underlines the latter.