- Authors:
-
Ortino, Matteo
- Title:
-
Il Digital Services Act e la produzione di conoscenza: le specificità rispetto ai tradizionali regimi di trasparenza
- Year:
-
2026
- Type of item:
-
Articolo in Rivista
- Tipologia ANVUR:
- Articolo su rivista
- Language:
-
Italiano
- Format:
-
Elettronico
- Referee:
-
Sì
- Name of journal:
- PAPERS DI DIRITTO EUROPEO
- ISSN of journal:
- 2038-0461
- Page numbers:
-
91-121
- Keyword:
-
Digital Services Act; knowledge production; transparency; systemic risks; platform governance.
- Short description of contents:
- This article examines the Digital Services Act as a regulatory model that goes
beyond the traditional understanding of transparency as the mere disclosure of
information. Its central claim is that the DSA regulates not only the communication of
data to users, authorities or the public, but also the organizational, procedural and
technical conditions through which digital platforms are required to produce legally
relevant knowledge about their systems, their decisions and the systemic risks generated
by their services. From this perspective, contemporary economic regulation can be
understood as a law of the cognitive process of conduct: it does not merely prescribe
outcomes or prohibitions but structures the ways in which regulated actors collect
information, qualify it, make decisions, provide reasons, document their activity and
submit it to review. After distinguishing the social-epistemic role of platforms from the
regulatory knowledge required by the DSA, the article identifies the main differences
between the EU digital services regime and traditional transparency obligations. Under
the DSA, knowledge is not only transferred but produced; its object is not static but
dynamic and systemic; its circulation is not bilateral but multi-layered and
institutionalized; and the protected legal interest is not limited to individual selfdetermination
but extends to the governability of collective risks arising from platform
power. Particular attention is devoted to obligations concerning content moderation,
statements of reasons, internal complaint-handling systems, systemic risk assessment and
mitigation, independent audits, compliance functions and data access for researchers.
The article also explores the distinction between voluntary knowledge, mandatory
knowledge and non-compellable knowledge. On the one hand, Article 7 DSA protects
voluntary own-initiative investigations carried out in good faith, preventing the
spontaneous production of knowledge from automatically leading to the loss of liability
exemptions. On the other hand, Article 10(2)(b) confines information orders to data
already collected and under the provider’s control, thereby preventing public authorities
from compelling the production of new knowledge. The DSA thus establishes an
intermediate model: it encourages and organizes the cognitive capacity of platforms,
without turning it into a general monitoring obligation or a delegated public investigative
function. DSA transparency therefore emerges as an epistemic technique for governing
digital power.
- Product ID:
-
152613
- Handle IRIS:
-
11562/1202147
- Last Modified:
-
September 7, 2026
- Bibliographic citation:
-
Ortino, Matteo,
Il Digital Services Act e la produzione di conoscenza: le specificità rispetto ai tradizionali regimi di trasparenza
«PAPERS DI DIRITTO EUROPEO»
,
2026
,
pp. 91-121
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