Digital platforms have once again failed to convince the European Commission of their practical commitment to fight disinformation in the run-up to the European elections. This is reflected in a joint statement issued on Thursday 28 February by Commissioners Ansip, Jourová and King. However, the European Commission is giving itself until the end of 2019 before toughening its stance.
"It's true, there hasn’t been enough progress. But you have to start somewhere. By making the results public, you are creating some public pressure on these companies to take responsibility, especially before the European elections", commented European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva in response to journalists' questions. However, she refused to clarify the measures that could be considered at the end of the year in the event of a status quo, calling it an exercise in speculation. "Our preferred course of action is not to regulate. We would rather first give platforms a chance before considering follow-up actions."
Monthly evaluation
After an assessment of the overall response to the EU code of good practice in January (see EUROPE 12182), the European Commission committed itself to evaluate on a monthly basis the concrete measures put in place by Facebook, Google and Twitter to fight disinformation.
The review published today covers the progress made in January in controlling ad placement, transparency of political advertising, closure of fake accounts and systems for flagging automated robots. He concludes that the platforms “have not provided enough details to show that new policies and tools are being deployed quickly and with sufficient resources in all EU Member States”.
For example, he accused Facebook of not having done enough on advertising placement and of not providing information on the number of fake accounts closed. For Google, it is the lack of service integrity measures that is targeted. As for Twitter, the Commission criticised the lack of indicators related to the monitoring of ad placement and the integrity of services as well as, contrary to the commitments made, measures related to the transparency of political ads. The report is available at: https://bit.ly/2Uk25HS. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)