Europe prepares to rewrite the rules of the Internet

Next week, a law takes effect that will change the Internet forever—and make it much more difficult to be a tech giant. On November 1, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act comes into force, starting the clock on a process expected to force Amazon, Google, and Meta to make their platforms more open and interoperable in 2023. That could bring major changes to what people can do with their devices and apps, in a new reminder that Europe has regulated tech companies much more actively than the US.

The consequences are expected to be significant according to a veteran EU official. The EU office in San Francisco was established in part to explain the law's consequences to big tech companies. They will have to open their gardens.

“If you have an iPhone, you should be able to download apps not just from the App Store but from other app stores or from the Internet,” de Graaf says in a conference room with emerald-green accents at the Irish consulate in San Francisco, where the EU’s office is initially located. The DMA requires dominant platforms to let in smaller competitors and could also compel Meta’s WhatsApp to receive messages from competing apps like Signal or Telegram, or prevent Amazon, Apple, and Google from preferencing their own apps and services. Advertisement

Tech platforms don't have to comply immediately. The EU needs to decide which companies are large enough to be considered keepers of the peace. The companies will be announced in the spring. Six months is how long it will take for those people to come into compliance.

According to De Graaf, there will be a wave of lawsuits challenging Europe's new rules for Big Tech, but he is in California to make clear that the rules have changed. He says that the EU has levied large fines against companies through antitrust investigations, putting the burden of proof on bureaucrats. The onus is on the business to follow the rules. The main message is that negotiations are over and we are in a compliance situation. You might not like it, but that is how it is.

Changes in how tech platforms serve people beyond the EU's 400 million internet users are expected to be easier to implement thanks to the DMA.

Tech companies will soon have to grapple with a second EU law, the Digital Services Act, which requires risk assessments of some algorithms and disclosures about automated decision-making, as well as forcing social apps like TikTok to open their data to outside scrutiny. The law will be implemented in stages, with the largest online platforms expected to have to comply in the mid 20th century. Specific rules for artificial intelligence may be passed by the EU.

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Tougher rules for tech giants are needed to help protect people and other businesses from unfair practices and allow society to benefit from technology, argues De Graaf. The public's confidence in technology can be undermined by a lack of firm regulation according to him. He says that if citizens lose trust in artificial intelligence because they think it discriminates against them, they will shun it.

The EU opened a new office in order to work with the US on technology policy. Both sides want to find ways to address chip shortages and how authoritarian governments can use technology.

He is going to visit California to meet state lawmakers who have stood up to Big Tech. They passed a bill last month requiring strict default privacy settings for children. The CHIPS and Science Act was the only legislation affecting the tech industry in recent years.

The EU's new presence in the tech industry's backyard is proof that it is serious about shaping tech policy around the world. Some of that power should be used to benefit people who rely on Big Tech platforms outside the US and EU.

The EU hopes it can avoid falling into traps that have derailed the plans of previous newcomers to Silicon Valley, a place with many more executives, entrepreneurs, and investors than policy experts. She hopes EU policymakers don't get distracted by the tech hype. The tech bro story is true.

The story was first published on wired.com.