Google unveiled several new transparency measures on Thursday as the European Union’s (EU) landmark legislation overhauling rules for the digital landscape is set to go into effect Friday.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) goes into effect for 19 large online platforms and search engines — including Google Search, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping and Google subsidiary YouTube — that reach at least 45 million users a month.
Other massive platforms — like Amazon, the Apple App Store, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and Wikipedia — will also be subject to the new rules starting on Friday.
Laurie Richardson, Google’s vice president of trust and safety, said in a company blog post on Thursday that Google plans to increase transparency about advertising on its platforms in preparation for the new rules.
“We will be expanding the Ads Transparency Center, a global searchable repository of advertisers across all our platforms, to meet specific DSA provisions and providing additional information on targeting for ads served in the European Union,” Richardson said.
Google also intends to increase data access for researchers, make information about its content moderation policies more easily accessible, and expand the scope of transparency reports that detail how the company handles content moderation, she said.
Richardson added that Google is “committed to assessing risks” — including “risks of illegal content dissemination” and “risks to fundamental rights, public health or civic discourse” — on its platforms and will report the results to the EU, independent auditors and public at a “later date.”
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