The European Commission has committed itself in its recent Action Plan for Democracy (see EUROPE 12615/1) to present, in spring 2021, guidelines to address the shortcomings of the Code of Practice on Disinformation. On Thursday 1 April, it unveiled its roadmap on the subject.
The Code, signed by Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Mozilla and TikTok, imposes self-regulatory rules on platforms.
However, the evaluation of the first year of application of the Code (see EUROPE 12557/26) revealed shortcomings, in particular the inconsistent and incomplete application of the code across platforms and Member States, the lack of uniform definitions—particularly of certain threats—and the absence of an independent monitoring mechanism.
The guidelines on which the Commission is currently working will therefore determine what changes need to be made to the text to increase its effectiveness.
In its roadmap, the institution suggests that these changes aim, among other things, to ensure that platforms develop measures to “limit the artificial amplification of disinformation campaigns/fake accounts and bots”, and that they establish procedures and standards for working with fact checkers.
It would also like to see platforms called upon to provide their users with tools to assess the reliability of information sources.
Another important point for the Commission is to better monitor the implementation of the code by platforms and the effectiveness of the measures they adopt in this framework. The guidelines could therefore require the use of key performance indicators, access to certain data or the implementation of evaluation tools.
Finally, the institution states that its upgrading of the code will be reinforced by the entry into force of the two new laws on digital services and digital markets (see EUROPE 12623/1), as well as by the expected legislative initiative on the transparency of sponsored political content (see EUROPE 12644/28).
To consult the roadmap: https://bit.ly/2PLMfbZ (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)