European Commission inaugurates European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency

The European Commission has inaugurated the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT), a new body dedicated to assisting the Commission in exercising some of the supervisory and enforcement roles established through the Digital Service Act (DSA). The DSA imposes risk management requirements for companies designated as Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines; these are asked to identify, analyse, and mitigate various systemic risks on their platforms, from how illegal content and disinformation can be amplified through their services, to the impact on the freedom of expression or media freedom. ECAT will provide the European Commission with in-house technical and scientific expertise to ensure that algorithmic systems used by these companies comply with the DSA’s risk management, mitigation, and transparency requirements.

Within ECAT, data scientists, AI experts, social scientists, and legal experts will combine their expertise to assess the functioning of algorithmic systems – through technical analyses and evaluations of algorithms – and propose best practices to mitigate their impact. In addition, ECAT will investigate the long-term societal impact of algorithms.