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European Parliament approves preliminary proposal to ban some targeted ads

European Parliament approves preliminary proposal to ban some targeted ads




On Thursday, the European Parliament voted to approve a preliminary draft of the bill, which aims to curb Big Tech's aggressive advertising practices (via Bloomberg). Parliament adopted the draft with 530 votes of approval, 78 against and 80 absentees.

The Digital Services Act, which was first introduced in 2020, would prevent platforms such as Google, Amazon and Meta-owned Facebook from using sensitive information such as sexual orientation, race and religion for targeted ads. Services will be required to provide users with the ability to easily opt out of tracking, and platforms will be pressured to remove illegal content and products online, which contain hate speech or counterfeit goods.

"With an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament has adopted the Digital Services Act," Dutch politician and Member of Parliament Paul Tang wrote on Twitter. "A big win, with support from left to right."

The approved proposal also includes two rules that parliament agreed to last month: a ban on both ads targeted to minors and dark patterns, a practice used to trick some platform users into agreeing to share their data. do for. Any company that violates these policies could face fines of up to six percent of its global revenue.

As Bloomberg noted, the Digital Services Act still has more hurdles to overcome; Talks with the European Council will begin on 31 January. US Democrats introduced a similar bill last week that, if passed, would also ban targeted advertising.

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