On Thursday 16 June the European Commission launched its new strengthened code of practice to combat online disinformation, extending and clarifying the commitments of platforms and the industry in the context of the increasing volume of false information.
“This new anti-disinformation code comes at a time when Russia is weaponising disinformation as part of its military aggression against Ukraine, but also when we are seeing attacks on democracy more generally”, said Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová.
In concrete terms, the new code of practice now has 33 signatories, including Meta, Google, Twitter, TikTok and Microsoft, as well as other smaller or specialised platforms, entities from the online advertising sector, fact checkers and civil society actors.
In detail, the code provides for a reduction in financial incentives for the dissemination of disinformation content to ensure that providers of such content cannot benefit from advertising revenues.
In addition, the text also aims to give users better tools to recognise, understand and report disinformation, while at the same time developing “fact-checking in all EU countries and languages”, the document says.
In addition, a section of the text is devoted to the transparency of political advertising, to make it easier for users to recognise political advertisements through labelling and information on sponsors, expenditure and the period of display.
One part of the code of practice is dedicated to supporting researchers to increase the quality of platform evaluations through better access to their data.
A transparency centre and a working group will be set up to monitor the proper implementation of the Code of Practice.
The new code, which includes 44 commitments and 128 measures, is in line with the DSA-DMA digital package (see EUROPE 12960/26) to regulate the digital space for online services and markets.
“The new code of practice will be supported by the DSA - including for heavy and dissuasive sanctions”, stressed Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton. As a reminder, the DSA provides for fines of up to 6% of annual worldwide turnover for violations. In the event of a repeat offence, a decision could also be taken to cut off access to the EU’s information space.
In addition to the digital information space, the Commission also announced that it would present its ‘Media Freedom Act’ later this year. The latter, Thierry Breton said, will aim to “deal with the important aspects of the media in the broadest sense so that the free press can express itself without the control of entities, especially foreign ones”.
See the code of practice: https://aeur.eu/f/25x (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)