EU regulators seek public feedback before drafting new rules to regulate tech giants

It will help the European Commission to draft new Digital Services Act

EU regulators are planning to send a 43-page questionnaire to public, digital service providers and the member states in coming weeks, seeking feedback before writing new rules to manage tech giants like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Uber.

According to Reuters, the questionnaire prepared by the EU regulators seeks information on a number of topics, such as the level of transparency around online advertising, the power of "gatekeepers", and the liability of social media firms for harmful content on their platform.

The feedback will help the European Commission in drafting Digital Services Act that will replace a directive introduced nearly 20 years back to govern online services in the EU.

The questionnaire will seek opinion of respondents on subjects like what makes a company a gatekeeper, with options including holding huge volumes of data, market share in terms of turnover, having a large user base or how difficult it is for users to switch to a rival firm.

The EU has said in the past that new act will also define responsibility of tech firms in removing harmful content and products from their platform.

Google and Facebook ague that it is not possible for them to police the internet and that it shouldn't be their responsibility.

In February, the EU rejected Facebook's CEO Mark Zukerberg's vision on online content regulation, stating that the social media firm must take more responsibility for illegal, harmful and fake material on its platforms.

EU's response came after Zuckerberg published a 13-page white paper titled "Charting a Way Forward: Online Content Regulation" suggesting that there should be global policies on what is permissible on internet and that internet firm should not face any liability for content on their platforms otherwise free speech would be restricted.

EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton rejected Facebook's proposal, saying it was the Facebook's responsibility to adapt to EU rules, rather than the other way around.

Breton described Facebook's proposed Internet rules as insufficient and stressed that the company was "being slow" in proposing ideas on how to delete illegal and fake content from its platform

The UK government also published early proposals for online harms regulation in February, giving broadcasting regulator Ofcom the responsibility of regulating online platforms.

The new legislation will give Ofcom the power to prosecute or fine the companies should they breach a legal 'duty of care' by exposing internet users to harmful and illegal content.