The EU Commissioner said that the commission made an analysis in three EU member states, Spain, Poland and Slovakia, and they came to the conclusion that
X, formerly known as Twitter, “falls far short of EU anti-disinformation standards”.
In 2018, Twitter signed the Code of Voluntary Cooperation, according to which, along with dozens of other signatory online platforms, it can decide what obligations it undertakes in the fight against disinformation. The company, which has since been owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, withdrew from the settlement. Although joining the code is voluntary, some of its elements were included in the EU Digital Services Act, which came into effect last month, and will apply to X. Companies that violate the law can be fined up to six percent of their global revenue or even banned from the web.
Elon Musk knows full well that he cannot avoid punishment by leaving the code, because the Digital Services Act is now in full effect. My message to Twitter is that it needs to follow the law because we will be watching what it does
– warned Jourová.
The commissioner called on social media platforms to step up the fight against disinformation, naming the Kremlin as one of the main drivers of misleading online content aimed at European Union users.
Cover image source: Getty Images
