New European agreement on rules for online content What does it say?

European Union countries and the bloc's lawmakers have reached an agreement on new rules that require tech giants to do more to monitor content on their platforms and pay fees to regulators that monitor their compliance.

European Union countries and the bloc's lawmakers on Friday reached an agreement on new rules that require tech giants to do more to monitor content on their platforms and pay fees to regulators that monitor their compliance.

The agreement came after 16 hours of negotiations.

The Digital Services Act is the second prong of EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager's strategy to curb the dominance of Google's unit of Alphabet, Meta (formerly Facebook) and other US tech giants.

"We've come to an agreement on the Digital Services Act: the law will ensure that what is considered illegal offline is also seen and treated as illegal online, not as a slogan (but) as reality," Vestager said in a tweet.

Under the Digital Services Act, companies face fines of up to 6% of their total operations globally for breaching the rules, while repeated violations could result in them being banned from doing business in the European Union.

The EU's 27 member states and lawmakers last month backed Vestager's Digital Markets Act that could force Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft to change their core practices in Europe.

Unwelcome guests Why do banks want to enter the world of Metaverse?

The banking and finance sectors, which closely follow cutting edge technologies, are unwelcome players in the metaverse world. Despite the idea of ​​decentralization in the world of Metaverse, the banks began to search for a place in this world.

Amidst the massive popularity of Blockchain technology and the popularity of digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as the economy grows around these decentralized products and the number of people using them increases, other sectors are trying to survive in this ever-expanding economy.

Among the sectors that are trying to adapt their steps for this digital change are banks and finance companies, especially that their dynamics are very open to being affected by blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi), in addition to financial technology (FinTech).

In this report, we review how this period of fundamental change began, and how the banking and financial sector is preparing to plunge itself into the world of Metaverse.

The origin of the story

Speaking to TRT Haber , the Chairman of the Decentralized Finance Committee at Metaver Union, Chettin Emre Saadi, mentioned that in 1992 Neil Stevenson described Metaverse as a "dystopia" in his novel (Snow Crash), drawing attention to the following point: "Why Wasn't there such excitement when the idea was introduced in 1992? Answering that the technology of the period was not suitable for such a move, and that the dystopia did not attract the attention of investors."

So what happened after 92? Google applications and social media have entered our lives, and with them the concept of the Internet for all users has changed.

The first move Metaverse launched in 2008 was blockchain technology and bitcoin, followed by non-fungible tokens. Saadi describes these three technologies as a triangle that forms decentralized finance, which has become active with its spread and popularity among investors.

It states that decentralized finance rejects any authority or intermediary, and implies the ability to carry out all financial transactions without using any intermediaries.

Why do they want to stay in the game?

While experts expect the metaverse market size to reach $1 trillion in 2024, the financial and banking sectors are also taking steps to survive in this economy. For example, several banks from different countries, such as JPMorgan, the largest US bank, announced that they had bought land in the world of Metaverse.

Saadi said: "Financial actors want to stay in the game, but decentralized regulation and decentralized finance do not want them." "Is there a financial world going to be created without me?" he added. In order to avoid this fear, financial institutions prefer to stay close.”

Although the financial authorities remain close, today they cannot offer any banking transaction, product or service through Metaverse. Experts expect banks to use their land on Metaverse not as bank branches, but as points of expertise and spaces for advertising, promotion and public relations.

Opposites will work together for a while

According to Saadi, disruptive innovation by its very nature rivals what it wants to destroy and strengthen. Likewise, decentralized finance will enhance traditional finance and financial technologies.

For example, NFT thefts are being highlighted in the US-Canadian digital media under the headline: "NFT Theft Victims Beg Central Rescuers".

Saadi added, “Decentralized finance is a challenge to traditional finance. But they will have to work together for a while, and I think they will have to grow together. There is no other way to do that.”