https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022R2065

Na doll. IANAL…

Hello

To avoid problems with the new law, we need the option to manually approve postings.

I am not convinced that this is exactly what the law prescribes, but it may be a possible solution to handle the issue for one or the other forum operator. On the other hand this would interfere with the main purpose of a forum. Not, because the forum team has to read and approve every posting but because this leads to additional waiting times for responses due to the necessary approval by the forum team.

Please read about the EU's new Digital Services Act.

I read the german and the english Wikipedia articles about the DSA. Reading the legal text, that was linked by Alfie (and also the English version), was absolutely not helpful for me. But in the end I took a dive into the legal text.

Its main goal is to prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation. So we all, who have a forum etc. are responsible now for all postings or comments made on our forum.

So far, so correct.

According to the german Wikipedia article, the legal text requires illegal content to be removed immediately on becoming aware of it.

From the german Wikipedia article:

"Nicht einvernehmlich weitergegebene illegale Inhalte ... sollen sofort aus dem Verkehr gezogen werden."

Translation by deepl.com:

"Illegal content that is not shared consensually ... should be removed from circulation immediately."

The omitted passages contain a term that is blocked in this forum.

Furthermore it requires to provide a reporting function with a firmly defined processing of those reports for this purpose.

From the german Wikipedia article:

"Plattformen müssen ein klareres „Melde- und Aktions“-Verfahren bereitstellen, bei dem die Nutzer die Möglichkeit haben, illegale Inhalte online zu melden; Meldungen von Nutzern müssen von den Plattformen zügig bearbeitet werden. Die Melder müssen über das Ergebnis informiert werden."

Translation by deepl.com:

"Platforms must provide a clearer "report and action" procedure that allows users to report illegal content online; reports from users must be processed quickly by the platforms. The reporters must be informed of the outcome."

I expect "clearer" means, clearer than before according to the superseded rules.

... and then I delved into the legal text after all.

All in all there are only a few of the articles, that apply to typical forum operators of a MLF forum (we know about). Most of the Articles apply to online platforms and market places and not to typical communities, that uses a forum software like MLF.

Most operators are private persons or association members who operate a forum in the name of the association (i.e. a football fan club). I am not aware of really big communities or companies, that operates a MLF forum. Therefore, most operators seems to fall under the provisions of Article 19.

Article 19

Exclusion for micro and small enterprises

1. This Section, with the exception of Article 24(3) thereof, shall not apply to providers of online platforms that qualify as micro or small enterprises as defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC.

2. By derogation from paragraph 1 of this Article, this Section shall apply to providers of online platforms that have been designated as very large online platforms in accordance with Article 33, irrespective of whether they qualify as micro or small enterprises.

I didn't dive into Recommendation 2003/361/EC but I expect private forum operators to fall under Article 19 with exception of operators of very large online platforms (forums) (I'm not aware of any case).

Technically relevant seems to be the articles 6, 7 and 8.

Article 6

Hosting

1. Where an information society service is provided that consists of the storage of information provided by a recipient of the service, the service provider shall not be liable for the information stored at the request of a recipient of the service, on condition that the provider:
(a) does not have actual knowledge of illegal activity or illegal content and, as regards claims for damages, is not aware of facts or circumstances from which the illegal activity or illegal content is apparent; or
(b) upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, acts expeditiously to remove or to disable access to the illegal content.

...

Article 7

Voluntary own-initiative investigations and legal compliance

Providers of intermediary services shall not be deemed ineligible for the exemptions from liability referred to in Articles 4, 5 and 6 solely because they, in good faith and in a diligent manner, carry out voluntary own-initiative investigations into, or take other measures aimed at detecting, identifying and removing, or disabling access to, illegal content, or take the necessary measures to comply with the requirements of Union law and national law in compliance with Union law, including the requirements set out in this Regulation.

Article 8

No general monitoring or active fact-finding obligations

No general obligation to monitor the information which providers of intermediary services transmit or store, nor actively to seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity shall be imposed on those providers.

Also most of the articles of Chapter 3 (legal representatives, points of contact, terms and conditions of service and so on) apply in one or the other way to forum operators (taking into account Article 19) but does not require any technical action from our side.

The only other Article I found, that I would expect to be relevant, is Article 47 (Codes of conduct for accessibility). This is something I strongly agree with but it's nothing, that's done within a few days. It's a long lasting technical process of advancements.

Please add some kind of approve post by admin in the settings, so we be able also to manually approve postings or comments.

I'll see what I can do within a short time. But this needs a few thoughts more than only holding back new postings until their approval. To make it working as the legal text requires, we need a feature for preservation of evidence of illegal content, that has to be reported to law enforcement authorities. In general this exists but we have to come to a process how to handle this for forum operators.

🤔

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