There is still much to be done.
This year, tech companies have made decisions that were previously unimaginable: Apple decided to adopt the RCS protocol, enabling text message interoperability with Android devices; it also decided to remove the lightning port from its most recent iPhone after more than ten years; Meta offered a monthly subscription to users who wished to opt out of targeted advertising; and TikTok, Meta, and Snap allowed users to completely opt out of their recommendation algorithms.
Without pressure from the European Union, none of these concessions would have taken place; the union has long been at the forefront of efforts to regulate “Big Tech” (or tried to), but in 2023 some of those efforts finally paid off.
The iPhone 15 lineup was the first phone from Apple to support USB-C instead of its proprietary lightning port; while the company may have eventually made the switch on its own, it did so in 2023 as a direct result of a European law that made USB-C the common charging standard. This was the most obvious effect of increased EU regulations this year.
Last year, Apple executive Greg Joswiak stated, “We have no choice as we do around the world but to comply to local laws.” (The requirement compels all new phones and other mobile devices to use USB-C by the end of 2024.)
Similarly, it is generally accepted that Apple’s long-standing resistance to supporting RCS—which would have finally modernized text messages between iPhone owners and their friends in the “green bubble”—was the reason behind the EU’s political will behind its decision to finally agree to support the RCS standard in iMessage.
Apple has not explained publicly why it reversed course on RCS, but it could be assumed that the company was trying to appease EU regulators who could have taken more drastic measures, such as mandating that iMessage be fully compatible with other chat apps like WhatsApp. Google and other businesses were pressuring EU authorities to regulate iMessage like other “gatekeeper” services that come under its jurisdiction because of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple’s unexpected announcement that it would support RCS, after all, coincided with the deadline for companies to challenge the EU’s gatekeeper regulations.
Interestingly, despite being the result of EU-specific regulations, both of these changes will also benefit US users. Carolina Milanesi, a consumer analyst with Creative Strategies, told Newtechmania that there is “definitely a higher degree of consumer protection in Europe than there is in the US,” and that these protections frequently “cascade down” to other regions because it can be inconvenient to implement different standards across geographies.
Apart from the benefits conferred by the DMA, the majority of the prominent social media applications, such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram, are also subject to the Digital Services Act, an additional EU legislation that came into force this year. These laws mandate that these businesses provide comprehensive disclosures regarding misinformation and other detrimental content, as well as an explanation of the workings of their recommendation algorithms.
Paul Barrett, deputy director of NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, says that “the social media industry will have an incentive to not misbehave and/or incentive to self regulate more vigorously if you force it to explain itself, to reveal to some degree its inner workings.”
There have been some significant changes for social media users in the EU, but it is unclear whether these measures will genuinely improve the services for those who use them. There are also unanswered questions regarding the manner in which the regulations will be implemented.
In addition to removing the majority of targeted advertising for 13 to 17-year-olds in the bloc, TikTok, Snapchat, and Meta have all allowed European users to completely opt out of their recommendation algorithms. Meta was also compelled to grant EU users the option to choose no advertising at all or to opt out of targeted advertising (in exchange for a hefty monthly subscription).
It is unlikely that any of these companies would have voluntarily acted against their own self-interest if left to self-regulate, as US policymakers have been content to allow them to do. These may not seem like monumental changes, but they do strike at the core of all of these companies’ business models.