Twitter has decided to abandon the EU’s disinformation code, a voluntary pact that brings together the main social platforms, but “its obligations remain,” EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted on Saturday.
Launched in 2018, the EU code of practice on disinformation has nearly three dozen signatories, including industry giants Meta, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and TikTok.
Twitter abandons the EU Voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation.
But the obligations remain. You can run but you can’t hide.
Beyond voluntary commitments, combating disinformation will be a legal obligation under #DSA as of August 25.
Our teams will be ready for the application.
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) May 26, 2023
It also covers smaller platforms, as well as advertisers and fact-checkers, and non-governmental organizations.
The code was written by industry players themselves and contains more than three dozen commitments, such as better cooperation with fact-checkers and not promoting players who distribute disinformation.
“You can run but you can’t hide. Beyond voluntary commitments, combating misinformation will be a legal obligation under the DSA (digital services act) from August 25,” she wrote.
“Our teams will be ready for the application,” he warned.
Since buying the social network six months ago, billionaire Elon Musk has relaxed moderation of problematic content, which appears to have amplified the voices of notorious spreaders of misinformation on the platform.
“If (Elon Musk) doesn’t take the code seriously, then he better resign,” a European Commission official told AFP on Friday.