News

Yellow card to Twitter in the EU for not saying what it does to avoid misinformation

The European Commission has tired of having contemplations with Twitter, and has sent a very clear message to its owner, Elon Musk: either do more to combat misinformation on the social network, or you will have to bear the consequences. The message comes after, along with other technology companies, Twitter presented the reports that the Commission has requested from technology companies on their compliance with data protection and security regulations. Specifically, about what they have done to eliminate disinformation on their platforms in the last six months.

According to reports in the possession of the European Commission, the data provided by Twitter falls very short compared to the information provided by companies such as Google, Meta, Microsoft or TikTok. These reports reflect that your progress over the past six months is in line with the EU code of practice on disinformation. But Twitter does not seem to have complied, or at least has not provided enough data for the Commission to be sure of it. Of course, it has sent them on time, as the other technological companies have done.

Among the data in the reports is the ad revenue companies have stopped receiving from disinformation actors, as well as the value of political ads accepted or rejected, and instances of manipulative behavior detected.

Last year, the European Commission linked the aforementioned code directly to new online content rules known as the Digital Services Act, which allows regulators to fine companies up to 6% of their global revenue if they that have security breaches.

In view of the data provided by technology companies in this regard, the Vice President of Securities and Transparency of the Commission, Vera Jourovahas openly criticized the attitude of Twitter: «I am disappointed to see Twitter’s report lagging behind others, and I look forward to a more serious commitment to its obligations, as stated in the code.«. Jourova has also confirmed that the Twitter report is missing data and does not contain information about her commitments to give more strength to fact checkers.

He EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton, has also pointed out Twitter for not sending all the information that they should have communicated, and has threatened to penalize it harshly for not complying with the rules. Breton has stressed that «Today’s reports are a step in the fight against online misinformation. It is no surprise that its level of quality varies greatly depending on the resources that companies have allocated to this project.«.

In addition, it has stated that all the signatories of the code of good practices, among which is Twitter, «must honor their commitments, fully implementing the anti-disinformation code of practice, in advance of the obligations of the Digital Services Act«.

He next report submission that the technological companies have to do to the European Commission is set for the month of july, and it has to reflect more data about the implementation of the mentioned code and more data from the six months prior to the shipment. We will see if Twitter then decides to comply with all the rules or if, on the contrary, it decides to continue sending to the EU only the information that they see fit, which is more than likely to have consequences for the company.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *