On February 17, 2024, the Digital Services Regulation (DSA Regulation) will come into force across the EU, which, among other things, may impose various obligations on providers of hosting services. One of these obligations requires transparent information about measures put in place to moderate and restrict user content. The IT law firm provides legally compliant sample information for clients who offer web hosting services and moderate, block or restrict hosted content if it is illegal or inappropriate.
I. New general terms and conditions information requirements for web hosting providers
Die European Digital Services Regulation (Digital Services Act – DSA) will largely come into force on February 17, 2024 and will introduce a new program of obligations for so-called “intermediation services”.
According to Article 3 lit
Even though the DSA primarily addresses large providers of communication networks such as social media portals and sales platforms, the mandatory program of the legal act also affects providers of web hosting services. These provide web space for their customers’ third-party content and make it accessible.
Of particular importance here is the obligation to provide information in your own terms and conditions in accordance with Art. 14 DSA about measures implemented to moderate user content and permissions to restrict or block it.
If a web hosting provider provides content moderation and content restriction measures, it must, among other things, provide transparent information about the following circumstances:
on the procedure for illegal content or content that is not permitted according to its own terms and conditions, on possible consequences or sanctions such as the blocking/removal of content or the suspension/deactivation of customer access, on the existence of automatic or human checking mechanisms for hosted content, on possible procedures for reporting inappropriate content and the handling of such reports
II. Further information
The IT law firm provides details on the new general terms and conditions information requirement for web hosting providers, the implementation as well as the other DSA obligations ready for this post.
III. Template for Tenants: Information about content moderation and restriction for web hosting providers
Clients, which ones
Offer web hosting services and have measures in place to moderate hosted content and restrict objectionable content
must provide transparent information about the type and scope of these measures in their general terms and conditions from February 17, 2024.
The IT law firm provides affected clients with a function with a free text field in the online configuration of the following general terms and conditions:
Hosting (B2B) – AGBHosting (B2C + B2B) – AGB
Affected clients can fill this free text field with a link to their information about content moderation and restrictions, which they have set up on a separate subpage.
For this subpage, we provide clients with a standardized template below that can be used for legally compliant instructions.
IV. Sample: Information about the moderation and restriction of content as part of web hosting services
Please note:
The following template is designed in a standardized manner for common cases of content moderation in the context of web hosting services and takes into account the legal model of liability for inadmissible third-party content only after it has become known (“notice and take down”).
However, the model cannot take into account individual moderation and complaint management systems that clients may have set up.
The IT law firm cannot accept any liability for changes and individual personalization of the sample.
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