Article 38 of the EU Digital Services Act could be described as a masterpiece of legal drafting – 57 words to say very large online platforms must provide a version of their service not based on profiling.
Meta provided a sludgy, unusable option. In the absence of action from the European Commission, Dutch NGO Bits of Freedom took on the mantle of David, and took the Meta Goliath to court. And won. And then, in appeal, won again.
What lessons were learnt? Can this success be replicated elsewhere? Are there pitfalls that need to be avoided?
Join the conversation to hear first-hand insights from Rejo Zenger, Policy Advisor at Bits of Freedom.
Speaker: Rejo Zenger, Policy Advisor at Bits of Freedom.ance Advisor
Rejo Zenger is a policy advisor at the leading Dutch digital civil rights organisation Bits of Freedom. There, he is committed to protecting fundamental rights such as the right to privacy and freedom of expression, and more broadly our democratic rule of law. Much of his work focuses on breaking down the power of dominant technology companies and the government. He leads Bits of Freedom’s lawsuit against Meta regarding user choice
Moderator: Joe McNamee, Senior Policy Expert, EU DisinfoLab
Joe McNamee has been working on topics related to internet regulation for over 20 years. Prior to his current role as Senior Policy Expert at EU DisinfoLab, he worked as policy adviser for a political group in the European Parliament. From 2009 to 2018, he led European Digital Rights, the association of digital civil rights organisations in Europe, working on major topics such as the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Copyright Directive. Prior to this, Joe worked for a political consultancy specialised in telecommunications and internet policy, where he led three research projects funded by the European Commission. During this time, he also worked on the EU’s E-Commerce (the predecessor to the DSA) and ePrivacy Directives. Joe holds master’s degrees in European Politics and in International Law.
The opinions expressed are those of the speakers/authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of EU DisinfoLab. This webinar does not represent an endorsement by EU DisinfoLab of any organisation.
