What is the harm in size?

When it comes to digital services, what exactly is the harm in largeness and is size systemically problematic? These are key questions raised in CERRE’s latest Issue Paper “What is the harm in size?”.

The proposed Digital Service Act (DSA) would create a specific category of digital services called ‘Very Large Online Platforms’ (VLOPs). These are set apart as ones where the risk of harm from the dissemination of content is higher. They are defined on the basis of reach, determined by number of users. But what exactly is the harm in being large and are other considerations besides reach perhaps needed to gauge the level of risk?

The Issue Paper, authored by leading academic Sally Broughton Micova, examines the topic from the perspective of social and political theory. Its aim is to introduce a new perspective to discussions about the regulation of online content platforms and provide a nuanced understanding about the relationship between large size and the potential for systemic harm.

Looking at the connection between harm and size purely from a market perspective is inherently problematic because, of course, it is not the job of markets to protect privacy, family life, expression, public health, or democracy.

Broughton Micova highlights that platforms could be considered of greater risk of harm if they are public, which is not only a matter of the size of their audience and the extent to which that results in them being a public space, but also the extent to which any harm associated with them “contagion” affects public institutions, public or societal systems. Or if they facilitate the accumulation of harms to a degree that impacts the wider social environment, for which scale of content and users may not be the only indication.

Importantly, in order to identify platforms that pose a systemic risk and are, therefore ‘large’ enough to require additional measures a simple calculation of individual users may not be sufficient.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The DSA’s approach to harm is a risk-based one that connects largeness with systemic risk in three areas of potential harm (public institutions, societal systems, and social context). However, based on an extensive literature review of systemic risk and harm, when looking at the DSA legislation in particular Broughton Micova concludes that:

• Member State level systems should be accounted for in the designation of VLOPs;
• Some measure of interconnectedness should be part of the definition of VLOPs; and
• Media pluralism should be included as a distinct risk category for assessment.

This Issue Paper was presented and debated amongst academics, regulators, and industry actors during a CERRE webinar on 19 October 2021.