Digital Platforms’ Practices on Content Moderation: Substantive and Procedural Issues Proposed by DSA

Digital Services Act (DSA) is one of the first and one of the most comprehensive legal acts in the world regulating relationships between digital platforms and their users. It sets fundamental principles on how platforms should act to combat illegal content while respecting human rights standards. However, it is disputable whether DSA can minimize all risks posed by various types of content usually shared by users on various platforms. These concerns become extremely apparent in times of sharp social conflicts and wars when disinformation, fakes and hate speech are used as a powerful weapon of information war. In this research these concerns are analyzed from substantive and procedural perspectives. For this purpose, both substantive and procedural provisions of the DSA are critically analyzed. Concerning substantive provisions, the authors discuss what types of content the DSA aims to combat and what instruments are used for this purpose. Procedural provisions are those which establish mechanisms for platform users to appeal against platform’s decisions. The authors analyze these provisions from access to justice and fair trial perspectives.