Platforms, Online Surveillance, and the European Union: The Digital Services Act (DSA)

Over the past few years, governments have been keen on leveraging the power of platforms to further develop their online surveillance practices. The European Union (EU) is becoming a world-leading regulatory powerhouse in this respect. After having adopted in 2021 a Regulation on the countering of online terrorist content (TERREG), the EU legislature adopted the Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2022, which introduces measures boosting the online surveillance capacities and competences of both platforms and governments. While these initiatives are expected to protect the online environment, they risk imposing new forms of restrictions on freedom of expression and the right to respect for private life. Moreover, closer forms of platform/government cooperation raise multiple concerns, notably in light of growing debates about the scope and depth of online surveillance provided by platforms’ technological affordances. This article applies a trans-disciplinary perspective, bringing together law, political communication and media studies, to better understand the emergence of novel forms of European digital surveillance. First, the article examines how platforms’ algorithmic systems shape (and limit) information dissemination. We then critically analyse how EU initiatives expand platforms’ surveillance capacities to foster governments’ own digital surveillance practices. We focus on the DSA and those regulatory solutions that create novel forms of surveillance. Third, the article assesses how these measures comply with freedom of expression and the right to respect for private life. We conclude by providing recommendations on how to remedy problematic elements of the role that platforms will increasingly play in the digitisation of government surveillance.