Facebook, Twitter Must Try Harder to Comply With EU Consumer Rules, EC Says
Google+ has made its platform more consumer-friendly but Twitter and Facebook must do more, the European Commission said Thursday. The EC and national consumer protection authorities asked the companies in March to align their terms of service with EU laws, but they have only partially done so, it said. Failure to comply could mean penalties, said Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Commissioner Vera Jourová. The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) said the platforms' slow response is worrying. Facebook said it plans further updates to its terms later this year. Meanwhile, EC efforts to cope with illegal online content was criticized for being overly hasty and not based on evidence.
The EC published the changes made by the platforms to their terms of service to bring themselves into compliance with EU law (available here). Consumer protection authorities objected to terms that: (1) Attempted to prevent EU consumers from suing in their country of residence under EU law. (2) Failed to make clear the commercial nature of communications and sponsored content. (3) Limited or totally waived platforms' liability but held consumers fully responsible for their actions. (4) Allowed the platforms to remove posts or other user-generated content without clear justification and without giving consumers the chance to appeal. (5) Gave the companies power to unilaterally modify their terms and conditions and terminate contracts for any reason. The companies earlier addressed several of these complaints, the EC said.
Google's latest proposals appear to meet the demands from consumer authorities, but "Facebook and, more significantly, Twitter, have only partially addressed important issues about their liability and about how users are informed of possible content removal or contact termination," the EC said. Twitter and Facebook also didn't make adequate changes to their notice and action procedures used by consumer protection agencies to report and request the removal of illegal content, it said.
Facebook worked with the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network and the EC to "ensure its terms and conditions are more transparent," a company spokeswoman said. The platform has long had tools in place that inform people about content removals and it intends to expand them later this year, she said. Twitter is committed to meeting obligations to users and striving toward "industry-leading levels of consumer protection," a spokesman said. The platform has consistently worked with the EC, "collaboratively and in good faith," to deal with its concerns and will continue to do so, he said. Google didn't respond.
The failure to make all required changes shows the need for "real EU sanctions," BEUC said. The EC, in the process of updating consumer law, should ensure companies that don't respect the rules "face serious and deterrent sanctions, including fines" calculated on annual worldwide revenue, it said. The EC said it will now monitor the implementation of the change, and consumer protection authorities "may take action including enforcement where necessary."
The EC also expects online platforms to quickly and proactively detect, remove and prevent the reappearance of illegal content, it said Thursday. It's drafting a recommendation on tackling illegal online content, a leaked copy of which was made available Tuesday by European Digital Rights. In a letter that day to President Jean-Claude Juncker and commissioners, EDRi and nine others urged the EC to "uphold its promise to continue dialogues and exchanges with stakeholders on how best to tackle illegal content online."
The EC agreed in September to continue talking with platforms and others and to assess whether additional measures were needed by May, and appears to be on the verge of publishing its recommendation early, the groups said. "To the best of our knowledge there have been no major incidents that could be used as justification to speed up the already ambitious timeline set" in the EC's 2017 communication on dealing with illegal content online, they said. A comprehensive, evidence-driven initiative is impossible without dialogue with the European internet sector at large and civil society, they wrote. Other signatories included the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Center for Democracy and Technology, European eCommerce and Omni-Channel Trade Association, European Internet Services Providers Association and European Technology and Travel Services Association.
The draft "seeks to fully privatise the task of deciding what is acceptable online or not," EDRi Executive Director Joe McNamee blogged. The only safeguard for user rights like freedom of expression "is an unenforceable hope that certain 'adequate safeguards' will be put in place voluntarily by the companies," he said.