- Aug 17, 2014
- 11,115
Tech companies operating some of the world’s biggest online platforms — including Facebook-owner Meta, Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok — have signed up to a new EU rulebook for tackling online disinformation.
These firms and others will have to make greater efforts to halt the spread of fake news and propaganda on their platforms, as well as share more granular data on their work with EU member states. Announcing the new “Code of Practice on disinformation,” the European Commission said that the guidelines had been shaped particularly by “lessons learnt from the COVID19 crisis and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.”
“This new anti-disinformation Code comes at a time when Russia is weaponising disinformation as part of its military aggression against Ukraine, but also when we see attacks on democracy more broadly,” said the Commission’s vice president for values and transparency, Věra Jourová, in a press statement.
The code itself contains 44 specific “commitments” for companies that target an array of potential harms from disinformation. These include commitments to:
- create searchable libraries for political adverts
- demonetize fake news sites by removing their advertising revenue
- reduce the number of bot networks and fake accounts used to spread disinformation
- give users tools to flag disinformation and access “authoritative sources”
- give researchers “better and wider access to platforms’ data”
- work closely with independent fact-checkers to verify information sources
Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Google and others agree to new EU rules to fight disinformation
The EU is forcing big tech to battle disinformation
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