As expected, European Union confirmed that some of the world’s largest technology companies reaffirmed their commitment to a new set of rules to combat disinformation online. Signers include Meta, Twitter, Google, TikTok, Microsoft, Adobe, TikTok and Twitch.
A total of 34 companies have joined the initiative, aiming to establish stricter rules to remove harmful content from each platform. Thus, it seeks to exercise greater control over the spread of false news and propaganda publications, as well as the use of bots and false accounts.
By joining the European Union’s new set of rules to combat disinformation, companies are making several commitments. Among them, the termination of the economic income of users or pages that spread false news or misleading content; expand data validation in all countries of the European bloc and in all languages involved; and making it easier to recognize political ads to make them more transparent to users, to name but a few.
“This new code against disinformation comes at a time when Russia is using it as a weapon in its military aggression against Ukraine, as well as when we are seeing attacks on democracy in general. We now have very important commitments to reduce the impact of disinformation in line with and much more reliable tools to measure how they are implemented in the EU, in all countries and in all its languages. Users will also have better tools to flag misinformation and understand what they are seeing. The new code will also cut incentive funds for spreading disinformation. and allow researchers to more easily access data from platforms.”
Vera Yurova, Vice President of the European Commission
Big tech companies vow to fight disinformation
That companies like Google and Meta are committed to the European Union’s new anti-disinformation code is no minor detail. In the case of Facebook, it has been widely noted in recent years that one of the world’s leading sources of disinformation; Some of the most controversial developments have been Russian interference in the US elections that ended with the election of Donald Trump as president, as well as the spread of false news about the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines.
In the meantime, Google has also been repeatedly criticized for this. Not only by spreading malicious content through YouTube, but also through its search engine.
Twitter, for its part, has recently been at the center of discussion for alleged lack of freedom of speech; a concept expressed by Elon Musk himself, who is trying to buy said social network. However, the mogul himself recently said that the platform would comply with a new European code against disinformation. “Everything my companies can do is good for Europe and we want to do it,” the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX said at the time.
Thierry Bretonthe European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, has spoken out strongly about the scope of the new rules against disinformation, which are part of Digital Services Law. “Now we have very clear rules. Companies can do whatever they want outside of Europe, but in Europe they will have to comply with rules and obligations,” he said. Wall Street Magazine.
Those who do not abide by the code will be subject to severe punishments such as penalties up to 6% of your global turnover.
Source: Hiper Textual
