Ideological Entrepreneurs and Disinformation: How Platforms Challenge the Vagueness of the Digital Services Act

Abstract

The introduction of the Digital Services Act (DSA) by the European Union marks a fundamental step forward in the governance of social media platforms, by outlining content-moderation guidelines aimed at preventing disinformation and the systemic risks related to the business of polarisation. Taking a critical approach, this article discusses how the DSA regulatory framework addresses the issue of disinformation and the role of controversial influencers and, on the other side, how the content moderation measures provided by the DSA have recently been implemented by major social media platforms. Our analysis revealed multiple examples of vagueness in the legal text that neither address the role of political influencers (or the concept of influence as a whole), nor explicitly outline the concept of disinformation. Furthermore, a longitudinal analysis (18 months) of the content-moderation measures implemented in compliance with the DSA, and accessible through the DSA Transparency Database, shows that social media platforms tend to privilege temporary measures such as suspension of accounts rather than more effective actions such as deplatforming. In the medium term, however, temporary suspension measures – thanks to a combination of Streisand effect and influence – can produce an increase rather than a decrease in the popularity of the controversial profiles, which are ultimately even more ‘influential’ than before. As a result, the article highlights a double standard policy adopted by platforms: on one side, they moderate controversial profiles by complying with DSA guidelines, while in the long run restoring their social accounts to profit from their renewed popularity, thus reinforcing the business of polarisation typical of surveillance capitalism.