On the occasion of the digital tax in Austria, our CEO, attorney-at-law Philip Kübler, commented seven years ago on legal issues relating to platforms on the internet:
https://medienwoche.ch/2019/01/15/digitalsteuer-nur-die-spitze-des-eisbergs.
The digital tax is a politically more visible and factually logical step, but it does not affect the market structure and the responsibility of the platforms.
The striking feature then and now was the legal rules that platforms are mostly not interested in. These include rules of law and decency that are self-evident for other actors in public communication, for media, companies, academia, culture, government authorities, individuals.
Platforms, masters of avoidance and evasion, did not care about limits to their content and its dissemination. They tend to act outside the law and in a self-righteous manner.
And today? Half a childhood later, communication platforms are even more powerful – and even more important. They are an infrastructure for democracy, social cohesion and culture.
Now a law is to be created in Switzerland. At least it addresses the very large communication platforms and search engines:
https://www.uvek.admin.ch/de/newnsb/6TmEAde4htulaWG9CWYtK
The large communication platforms, as planned, must administer user complaints, explain manual interventions in content dissemination and, in the event of a dispute, submit to conciliation, they must disclose and allow research into their algorithmic selection and privileging of content, explain their risks, advertising and terms of use, and they are subject to the supervisory and sanctioning powers of OFCOM, the Federal Office of Communications.
For ProLitteris, we will support the legislative project. We will comment on whether a shared responsibility of the platforms for legal violations, abuses and risks will finally be established. What needs to be strengthened are not only general societal concerns about disinformation, discrimination against groups and hate speech, but also subjective rights. These include data protection and personality rights or intellectual property rights. These rights, too – taken as a whole – are relevant for democracy, the rule of law and society. The «creative industries» also have economic significance. The scope of the due diligence obligations should cover legal violations in this regard. And there needs to be legal representation and enforcement options in Switzerland.
The consultation runs until mid-February. ProLitteris intends to submit comments jointly with the other collective management organizations.