Possible Pitfalls for an Open Internet Search?
Position Paper on the Proposals for the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act and Data Governance Act of the EU Commission
At the end of 2020, the EU Commission presented the Digital Services Package. It contains a regulation on digital services—the Digital Services Act (DSA)—, a regulation on digital markets—the Digital Markets Act (DMA)—, and the Data Governance Act (DGA)—a regulation on data control.
The Open Search Foundation, under the leadership of Dr Christian Geminn, has prepared a position paper on these regulations. Among other things, the team identified possible pitfalls in the proposed regulations that could have unintended consequences for the establishment and operation of an Open Web Index in Europe. The position paper was sent to members of the European Parliament and the German Bundestag.
“The Open Search Foundation welcomes the efforts of the Commissionto regulate the areas affected by the three proposed regulations. However, we feel that parts of the proposed regulations may have, in their current form, the potential to display unintended effects on the establishment and operation of an Open Web Index in Europe. This may in turn hinder the current efforts towards digital sovereignty, a value which has been identified by the European Union as an important asset and objective in the digital age. An Open Web Index would significantly promote digital sovereignty by providing an alternative to established indices and thus a basis for the development of a market of independent European search engines and many other digital services …”
