Digital Services Act: Legal operating system against the wild net Representatives from science, business and politics see light and Shadows in the draft regulations for stricter rules for online platforms presented on Wednesday by the EU Commission. “The new legal framework for digital services and markets is a jack of all trades for platform regulation”, is how the Hamburg media researcher Matthias Kettemann classified the approach. Behind this is “a European network enforcement law expanded to include transparency obligations, algorithm control and advertising supervision.” Cologne media lawyer Rolf Schwartmann complained that there are “no effective measures to combat so-called overblocking”. Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht supported the planned Digital Services Act: “We must protect democracy from poisonous waves of hatred, conspiracy tales and lies. ”

Discounters and supermarkets should accept electronic waste In the future, citizens should also be able to hand in old electrical devices such as razors or cell phones in discounters and supermarkets. The prerequisite is that the retail space is larger than 25 square meters and that you sell electrical appliances yourself several times a year. “This makes it much easier to bring back smaller electrical appliances in everyday life,” said Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze of the dpa. Up to an edge length of centimeters, the right to return should not depend on whether the customer also receives a new one Buy device. The Bundestag and Bundesrat still have to approve the change in the law; the rules are to come into force first 2022.

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Microsoft Surface Duo is coming to Germany Microsoft celebrated 2020 a comeback on the smartphone market with the Surface Duo, now the folding smartphone is also being sold in Germany. At the beginning 2021 the Surface Duo will be available. The outstanding feature is the two 5.6-inch screens, which work either separately from one another or together as one large display. Microsoft has saved on the wireless standards, the camera and the battery. In terms of price, the folding smartphone is clearly in the luxury class.

Twitter provides the live streaming app Periscope a Twitter will discontinue its live streaming app Periscope in March. The users should still be able to broadcast live streams via the main Twitter app, emphasized Periscope in a blog post. The stand-alone Periscope app had been used less and less in recent years and could not be maintained economically, it was said to justify.

(igr)