'Dark patterns' – how the DSA draft on platform design needs to be improved

The social media news feed that never ends. The pop-up on the booking page that screams to users "74 people are watching this too! There are only 3 offers left!". The privacy settings page or account deletion page that can only be found after a marathon of clicks: These are all corporate design decisions that define the everyday online lives of millions of people. At best, such design practices are just annoying. At worst, they are intrusions on people's freedom of choice in the name of maximizing attention and profit. That's why the European Digital Services Act ("DSA") for tech platforms needs to explicitly focus on design issues.