The due diligence obligations of the Digital Services Act: a new take on tackling cyber-violence in the EU?

ABSTRACT

Cyber-violence is an entrenched phenomenon in the context of information society services, as the operational and business model of online platforms can pose severe harms and threats to online users. The Digital Services Act has come into force as of 19 October 2022, with the purpose of facing the risks and challenges for individual recipients of information society services. While ambitious in its aim to create the conditions for a ‘safe, predictable, and trustworthy online environment’, the Digital Services Act introduced several – yet still difficult to outline – due diligence obligations on very large online platforms (‘VLOPs’). The purpose of this article is to investigate said new due diligence obligations of the Digital Services Act Regulation, in the attempt to assess whether or not these might benefit the users most affected and/or exposed to cyber-violence within a long-term policy strategy.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital Services Act
• Cyber-violence
• Online platforms
• Social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).