The company cannot hide from EU regulations, tweeted Breton late on Saturday. “But commitments remain. You can run, but you can’t hide.” In addition to voluntary obligations, there will be a legal requirement from August 25th under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) Violations can cost companies fines of up to six percent of their global turnover.
“Our teams will be prepared for inspection,” said Breton. This law provides for respect for freedom of the press and fundamental rights. It was passed by the EU Parliament last year and is intended to regulate large online companies in the EU more strictly.
Twitter abandons the EU’s voluntary code of conduct against misinformation.
But the obligations remain. You can run, but you cannot hide.
In addition to voluntary commitments, combating disinformation will be a legal obligation. #DSA from the 25th of August.
Our teams will be ready for application.
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) May 26, 2023
Users as Fact Checkers
EU sources said on Thursday that US billionaire Elon Musk’s company had informed the EU Commission of its intention to withdraw from the voluntary agreement. However, there has been no official announcement yet. Twitter has argued that it prefers to trust its users as fact-checkers.
Portal/Patryk Ogorzalek/Agencja Wyborcza Breton, EU commissioner, urges Twitter to fulfill its obligations
As usual, Twitter responded to questions from the AP press with an auto-reply without further comment. A request for comment from the news platform “Politico” was reportedly responded to with a “shit” emoji.
New rules under Musk
Since taking over Twitter last October, Musk has fired many employees responsible for moderating content and communicating with Brussels. Musk also unblocked users who were banned for spreading misinformation. This included former US President Donald Trump. He also rescinded previous rules to combat misinformation and messed up the verification system and content moderation policies.
Musk has always stressed that what he saw as excessive restrictions on free speech on the platform should be removed. About two weeks ago, he announced that, after six chaotic months, he would be handing over the top job at Twitter to advertising specialist Linda Yaccarino.
Tech giants have committed
The code of conduct to fight disinformation on the main internet platforms was drawn up by the companies in the sector and agreed with the EU in 2018 and reinforced last year. In addition to companies in the advertising sector, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and, since 2020, Tiktok have also committed to complying with it. The aim is to track political propaganda and prevent the monetization of misinformation.
The code requires regular progress reports with data on lost advertising revenue from misinformation agents. Information about the number or value of accepted or rejected political ads and detected manipulative behavior should also be provided.
There have been signs for some time that Twitter was not prepared to meet the obligations of the EU Code of Conduct. Earlier this year, the EU Commission chastised Twitter for not providing a full report within the framework of the code.