Communications and search platforms like Facebook or Google have become crucial spaces for civic discourse and access to information. But they have also become powerful tools for commercial exploitation, political manipulation, silencing, and control. Meta’s January 2025 announcement of changes in its content moderation approach and policies is a painful reminder of digital platforms’ power over our democracies. The company has a history of allowing hate speech and disinformation to proliferate while also censoring critical voices. The choices it makes often come at the cost of accountability, trust, and public safety.
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is part of the new EU regulatory toolkit that seeks to hold Big Tech accountable, together with the Digital Markets Act. These regulations establish a new set of obligations for private actors and aim to create a secure and safe online environment for all. For the first time in EU history, a platform governance regulation promises to prioritize people’s fundamental rights.
However, no matter how well intended, platform regulations can be a minefield for human rights. The EU is not alone in shaping and exploring platform regulatory models. It is imperative that all governments developing or deploying platform regulations ground them in the rule of law — a bulwark against abuse.
Our latest report, Platform accountability: a rule-of-law checklist for policymakers, proposes a checklist to enable policymakers to examine the need for platform accountability regulations, and where necessary, enact regulations that are fit-for-purpose and protect human rights.
At Access Now, we have documented how governments can use platform regulations against marginalized groups to silence critical voices and tighten their grip on public discourse and civic space.
Many laws that regulate online platforms are deeply flawed. The Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda and anti-gay legislation in Russia are putting LGBTQ+ people’s fundamental rights and safety at risk, while further closing online spaces for organizing and pushing back against discrimination and abuse. In the U.S., legislative proposals like the Kids Online Safety Act risk opening the door to censorship. And in countries around the world, governments have increasingly ordered the blocking of online platforms, cutting off access to information during elections, political and social turmoil, protests, and war and conflict — when such access is crucial and lifesaving.
Government powers must be limited by law and may be exercised only based on law. However, lawmaking and state governance must also be subject to oversight and check-and-balance systems.
The EU has built a centralized regulatory system and enacted robust EU laws based on human rights and the rule of law protected by EU Member States. Due to the so-called Brussels effect, the EU DSA has potential to shape platform accountability regulations around the world. But if states simply copy-paste from the EU without human rights and rule-of-law safeguards, we could see unintended consequences that put people’s rights and safety at risk.
In our report, we lay out the rule-of-law safeguards that lawmakers should keep at the core of the platform accountability framework, based on the following umbrella principles:
- Ensure institutional checks and balances of state power
- Safeguard an independent and impartial judiciary
- Establish transparent and good governance
- Protect and enable free and safe civic space
- Establish and adequately enforce data protection principles before regulating online platforms
Around the world, the rule of law is declining, and democratic countries are not immune. As armed conflicts and threats of authoritarian aggression make the world less safe and less democratic, freedom of expression and pluralism are under attack. Only independent public institutions, courts, media, transparent lawmaking, and free civic space can help us maintain democracy.
To learn more about what is necessary for platform accountability regulations that uphold our rights and freedoms, read the full report.