The Digital Services Act in the European periphery: Critical perspectives on EU digital regulation

Abstract As the EU is positioned, and positions itself, as a global leader in digital regulation, it is more important than ever to challenge narratives that flatten disparities within the bloc. In this paper, I seek to problematise the perception of the European Union as the homogenous bloc sometimes alluded to, and even outwardly projected, in discussions about a ‘Brussels Effect’ in digital regulation. Using the EU Digital Services Act as a prism, I draw attention to the legal, political, social, and cultural variation within the EU and, crucially, the inter-state power dynamics and disparities that shape the development and implementation of EU digital regulation. Building on scholarship related to core-periphery dependencies within the EU and extending burgeoning critical methods in EU legal studies, leaning on decolonial approaches, I offer a foundational analysis of the DSA’s preliminary stages of the implementation of the EU Digital Services Act. Calling for different comparative counterpoints to those routinely used in EU legal studies and digital regulation, this article presents a rare insight into the process from the perspective of the EU’s smallest member state, Malta, a former British colony considered part of the EU’s southern periphery that acceded in 2004. In this paper, I argue that, within the EU’s borders, the belief that we are moving toward increased harmonisation and standardisation in the realm of digital rights is, in practice, questionable. I underline that any meaningful assessment of the Digital Services Act’s overall success must pay close attention to the regulation’s tangible impacts (and shortcomings) from the perspective of ‘peripheral’ EU states.