Julia Fioretti reported that the ‘Consumer Protection Authorities’ of Europe will be asking various “social media companies” like “Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc” for modifying their “terms of service” within a span of a month, otherwise, they may be subjected to fines.
On the companies’ front, they are proposing “some ways” that could resolve the issues after discussing the same with the “authorities”, whereby getting something constructive out of the meeting. The way of conducting business of tech companies of the U.S., starting from “privacy” to the quick steps taken to “remove illegal or hateful content”, have drawn the gaze of “tight scrutiny” in Europe.
The companies has received letter from the authorities in the month of December which indicated that the former’s some “service terms” did not abide by the “European Union consumer protection law”, therefore appropriate steps were required to “tackle fraud and scams on their websites”.
Furthermore, Reuters reports:
“According to the letters seen by Reuters, some of those terms include requiring users to seek redress in court in California, where the companies are based, instead of their country of residence.
“Other issues include not identifying sponsored content clearly, requiring consumers to waive mandatory rights such as the right to cancel a contract, and an excessive power for the companies to determine the suitability of content generated by users, according to the letters”.
Google, however, came under the same radar for its “social network Google+”, while the company along with Facebook could not be contacted for any immediate comment. In fact, one Twitter’s spokesman even “declined to comment”.
There are propositions coming from the authorities that the companies should establish “a standard communication channel” through which they can be notified of any content that were “deemed illegal” and along with the action requisition needed to carry out at that moment.
References:
http://www.reuters.com
On the companies’ front, they are proposing “some ways” that could resolve the issues after discussing the same with the “authorities”, whereby getting something constructive out of the meeting. The way of conducting business of tech companies of the U.S., starting from “privacy” to the quick steps taken to “remove illegal or hateful content”, have drawn the gaze of “tight scrutiny” in Europe.
The companies has received letter from the authorities in the month of December which indicated that the former’s some “service terms” did not abide by the “European Union consumer protection law”, therefore appropriate steps were required to “tackle fraud and scams on their websites”.
Furthermore, Reuters reports:
“According to the letters seen by Reuters, some of those terms include requiring users to seek redress in court in California, where the companies are based, instead of their country of residence.
“Other issues include not identifying sponsored content clearly, requiring consumers to waive mandatory rights such as the right to cancel a contract, and an excessive power for the companies to determine the suitability of content generated by users, according to the letters”.
Google, however, came under the same radar for its “social network Google+”, while the company along with Facebook could not be contacted for any immediate comment. In fact, one Twitter’s spokesman even “declined to comment”.
There are propositions coming from the authorities that the companies should establish “a standard communication channel” through which they can be notified of any content that were “deemed illegal” and along with the action requisition needed to carry out at that moment.
References:
http://www.reuters.com
