Today, EFF sent a joint letter to European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, highlighting the enormous potential of interoperability to help achieve the EU’s goals for Europe’s digital future. EFF joins a strong coalition of organizations representing European civil society organizations, entrepreneurs, and SMEs. We are calling on the European Commission to consider the role interoperability can play in ensuring that technology creates a fair and competitive economy and strengthens an open, democratic, and sustainable society. Specifically, we urge the Commission to include specific measures requiring interoperability of large Internet platforms in the forthcoming Digital Services Act package. This will strengthen user empowerment and competition in the European digital single market.
Interoperability mandates will enable users to exercise greater control over their online experiences. No longer confronted with the binary choice of either staying on dominant platforms that do not serve their needs or losing access to their social network, users will be able to choose freely the tools that best respect their privacy, security, or accessibility preferences. Interoperability rules will also be crucial to ensure a dynamic market in which new entrants and innovative business models will have a fair shot to convince users of their value.
The upcoming Digital Services Act is a crucial, and rare, opportunity to achieve these goals. This is not just any regulatory reform, but the most significant reform project the European Union has undertaken in two decades. And we intend to fight for users’ rights, transparency, anonymity, and limited liability for online platforms every step of the way.
Guided by our policy principles, we will work with and support the Commission in its efforts to develop a Digital Services Act that best addresses the challenges for Europe’s Digital Future and will submit detailed responses to the public consultation now underway.
The full text of the letter to Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager is available here.
