The Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into force in May 2024, aims to create fair competition in digital services and is primarily focussed on new obligations for so-called "gatekeepers" - the large systemically important platforms. The European Commission has so far defined 22 services from six companies as gatekeepers whose influence is to be limited. Smartphone users will notice two changes in particular: Firstly, Apple will have to allow the installation of apps from app stores other than its own App Store on iPhones and secondly, messaging services are to become interoperable.
The latter is defined under Article 7 of the DMA, which stipulates that gatekeepers should also be able to receive messages from other messaging services in the future. This requires a technical interoperability standard. The DMA does not contain any provisions for the technical design of interoperability between messaging services and cannot refer to existing, let alone European standards. Providers and other interested parties therefore founded the More Instant Messaging Interoperability (MIMI) working group in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to develop an open technical standard in 2022.
At this year's EuroDIG in Vilnius under the motto "Balancing innovation and regulation", DENIC co-organised the session "You on Signal and Me on Telegram - Messenger Interoperability by EU Regulation", which covered the technical, the regulatory perspective, and the user perspective. The session’s discussion focused on the technical feasibility of the interoperability of messaging services as well as potential challenges that could arise for users.
During the discussion it became apparent that the problem with messenger interoperability is not so much the technical feasibility, but rather the political and economic will of the providers. Although technical interoperability has decisive advantages for competition and users, it also raises questions for users regarding privacy settings, for example. In some cases, users explicitly opt for a certain messaging service to have to share less of their data with the provider. However, what happens if this service is interoperable with other services in the future? It will be crucial from the users’ perspective to maintain end-to-end encryption across the various platforms. In addition, extraterritorial effects, namely the potential impact of interoperability on users using messaging services from non-EU countries, must be taken into account.
The following message was derived from the panel discussion and will be taken to the global Internet Governance Forum 2024 in Riyadh:
