On Monday 29 July, just over a month after the European elections, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published a report detailing the impact of the DSA and the Code of Practice on online disinformation.
Introduced in March this year (see EUROPE 13379/7), these guidelines were intended to encourage major online platforms such as X, Facebook and Instagram to introduce a series of measures to counter the proliferation of dangerous or erroneous content during the election period.
The EDPB’s report details a number of positive indicators that have made it possible to assess the success of these guidelines: platforms’ improved compliance with the Commission’s expectations, good responsiveness to dubious elements reported, in particular for risks linked to generative AI (see EUROPE 13407/10), as well as an improvement of alerts linked to disinformation.
According to several sources, some platforms, such as Meta, implemented positive changes to their moderation and reporting policies immediately after signing the Code of Practice. While these changes cannot be directly linked to the Commission’s guidelines, they are nevertheless an indicator of the platforms’ willingness to comply.
EDMO, the European Digital Media Observatory, was also involved in monitoring the elections, tracking the volume of election-related disinformation circulating in EU Member States.
This represented 15% of all ‘fake news’ detected in the month preceding the elections, compared with 11% at the start of the year.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/d5u (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)