BRUSSELS — The European Union took a significant step Thursday toward passing legislation that could transform the way major technology companies operate, requiring them to police content on their platforms more aggressively and introducing new restrictions on advertising, among other provisions.
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The legislative arm of the 27-nation bloc voted overwhelmingly to give initial approval to the sprawling regulations set forth in the landmark Digital Services Act.
The legislation is the most aggressive attempt yet to regulate big tech companies as the industry comes under greater international scrutiny. It could serve as a model for lawmakers in the United States who say they, too, want to rein in the businesses’ digital practices.
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The European Parliament and Council of the European Union — the bloc’s legislative bodies — are expected to debate the contents of the legislation for months before voting on a final version.
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The version approved Thursday would force companies to remove content that is considered illegal in the country that is it viewed, which could be Holocaust denials in Germany or racist postings in France. And it would significantly shape how companies interact with users, allowing Europeans to opt out of targeted advertising more easily and prohibiting companies from targeting advertisements at children.
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“With the [Digital Services Act] we are going to take a stand against the Wild West the digital world has turned into, set the rules in the interests of consumers and users, not just of Big Tech companies and finally make the things that are illegal offline illegal online too,” said Christel Schaldemose, the center-left lawmaker from Denmark who has led negotiations on the bill.
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The vote Thursday was the culmination of months of debate among the parliament’s nearly 700 elected members.
Members had considered including a provision that would have completely banned targeted advertising — the practice of using information collected from users’ browsing history to tailor ads to them. They decided instead to give users the ability to opt out of certain types of tracking by changing a setting on their browsers. Currently, European websites ask users what types of tracking they would like to disable each time they visit.
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The legislation would also ban companies from employing deceptive tactics known as dark patterns to lure users to sign up or pay for services and products. And it would allow users to ask companies which personal characteristics, such as age or other demographic information, led them to be targeted with certain advertisements.
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Google spokesman Karl Ryan said the company would examine the legislation to understand its impact.
“We share the goal of [parliament] to continue to make the Internet safer for everyone and today’s vote on the DSA clears the way for a final agreement later this year, something we support,” he said.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Internet users are paying closer attention to technology practices, according to Gianclaudio Malgieri, associate professor of technology and law at the EDHEC Business School in France and the co-director of the Brussels Privacy Hub, and the reputations of some large companies have been battered.
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Companies such as Facebook and Google have started to improve some of their advertisement and privacy practices, Malgieri said. But the European legislation would hold them more accountable.
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“For the first time, it will not be based on what Big Tech decides to do,” he said. “It will be on paper.”
European policymakers have been far more aggressive than their U.S. counterparts in taking on the power and privacy practices of tech giants.
The bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation, which took effect in 2018, is one of the world’s strongest privacy laws. It has influenced tech companies’ data collection practices around the globe.
Scrutiny of the tech giants has been mounting on Capitol Hill, with congressional hearings and proposals to address online safety and competition in the industry. But to date, no comprehensive tech legislation has passed into law.
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Democrats and Republicans have sought to address content moderation through changes to Section 230, a decades-old shield that protects companies from lawsuits over content created by their users.
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But lawmakers are now at an impasse. Republicans say companies have gone too far in removing content; they accuse some of censoring political speech online.
Democrats say the companies have not done enough.
The Digital Services Act could influence efforts in Congress to increase transparency in the operations of social networks. Last year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, which would require companies to provide key data to vetted researchers.
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