1/ We're well aware of the positions of the major players on the Digital Services Act #DSA. But when trawling through the consultation submissions, the sheer impact of the DSA across a myriad of sectors becomes startlingly evident.

Here's a selection of the weird & wonderful... 2/ Animal welfare group @fourpawsint highlights the challenge of online trade and the illegal trade of animals on online platforms. It supports seller identification obligations and traceability rules:

Facebook on Tuesday (30 March) told Irish lawmakers to hold off on going ahead with proposed rules to regulate online political advertising until the European Commission presents its own legislation in the field 1/4: euractiv.com/section/digita… Ireland's Electoral Reform Bill foresees greater scrutiny of online political ads surrounding elections and puts forward new transparency obligations...2/4

And here's the Commission's presentation on the Digital Markets Act, to be discussed after the DSA in @EP_SingleMarket shortly: europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_… .@Andreas_Schwab: "It looks to me a bit strange that the European Commission is about to authorize a merger in the financial markets area with the London Stock Exchange being one of the partners, where we risk exactly to create another data monster."

If you're following the @EP_SingleMarket exchange of views on the Digital Services Act & Digital Markets Act starting shortly, there'll be slides from the Commission presented. Here are the DSA ones: europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_… .@prabprab appears in @EP_SingleMarket to discuss DSA/DMA after some much-needed time off!

There was a bizarre European conspiracy doing the rounds on far-right platforms in the hours leading up to the US #CapitolHill riots earlier this week, inexplicably drawing in one EU member state to the 'fraudulent' election claims. Bear with me on this one... I spent some time trawling through social media networks as well as some of the more fringe platforms, and stumbled upon an outlandish story that had garnered a lot of attention from far-right extremists online.

There's a lot of important background to this Clearview AI in the EU story. Sit tightly. euractiv.com/section/data-p… The European Commission’s lack of substantial response to concerns over the use of Clearview AI technology by EU law enforcement authorities has drawn the ire of MEPs on the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties committee, today...

So @OliverDowden @DCMS is pitching Huawei's exclusion from UK 5G as a 'diversification strategy' rather than a decision based on cybersecurity / espionage...euractiv.com/section/5g/new… Interesting to note that the possible ban is more down to the limit in the supply chain of US-made equipment to Huawei, following the US Department of Commerce restrictions in May.

So, 5G journos may have just spent 3 pointless years chasing around unfounded 5G cybersec myths..

1/ This is either remarkably unconscionable or profoundly negligent from the European Commission.

A SHORT THREAD.

I recently found out that President @vonderleyen met the CEO of one of the US's most controversial big data analytics firms, Palantir, at Davos this year... 2/ Yes, the same Palantir founded by Peter Thiel - billionaire Facebook investor who donated millions to Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential election...
nytimes.com/2016/10/16/tec…

1/7 Coronavirus THREAD: There are several overlooked areas with how the isolation measures could impact #COVID19 everyday life. One is the potential rise of gender-based domestic violence, as victims are forced to stay inside with their abusers...euractiv.com/section/corona… 2/7 “The crisis that we are going through and the quarantine could unfortunately create a fertile ground of domestic violence,” a statement from the office of @MarleneSchiappa read yesterday...

THREAD: I've taken an in-depth look at the Commission draft paper on Artificial Intelligence leak that @EURACTIV obtained yesterday....there are several important points....
euractiv.com/section/digita… Firstly, yes a time-limited (3-5 years) ban on facial recognition in public spaces is in the offing. This could provoke a serious conflict between @EU_Commission and certain member states - including France @cedric_o & Germany @BMI_Bund...