On Wednesday 22 January, the European Commission published the written commitments made by social platforms and networks for the future version of the ‘Code of Practice on Disinformation’. This should be incorporated into the Digital Services Act (DSA), following the example of the Code of Conduct on hate speech online (see EUROPE 13561/3).
Several of the major platforms concerned, particularly social networks, which are already in the Commission’s crosshairs for various breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA), have decided to scale down their commitments considerably, or even to withdraw from them altogether.
Google, Youtube and LinkedIn are dropping their obligations regarding the fact-checking part, arguing, according to the online search engine, that “compliance with this commitment is not an ‘appropriate, relevant and practicable’ method for YouTube and Search to mitigate the systemic risk of disinformation”.
On LinkedIn’s side, the network justifies itself by arguing that “the application of fact-checking measures as described in the Code is not proportionate to LinkedIn’s risk profile with regard to disinformation, as shown by annual assessments [...] and would require LinkedIn to implement measures that are not reasonably adapted”.
For its part, TikTok, the Chinese platform with millions of users, states that it is “prepared to commit to implementing certain fact-checking measures provided that other signatories providing similar services do the same”.
Meta, which has announced that it is abandoning its current fact-checking systems in the US, writes that, “in line with [its] public announcements”, the company will “continue to evaluate the applicability of this chapter to Facebook and Instagram”, but warns of possible future changes in this area, namely the planned transition to ‘community notes’, similar to the shift by X in 2023.
The latter platform withdrew from the Code in 2023, when it was bought by billionaire Elon Musk.
These cascading withdrawals reflect a general uncertainty about platforms’ commitment to fact-checking, while several of them are suspected of not doing enough to counter them (see EUROPE 13562/2, 13547/15).
Paradoxically, they have committed themselves to combating hate online by implementing on their own initiative the integration of the Code of Conduct on this subject in the DSA (see EUROPE 13561/3).
The Code of Practice on Disinformation is a framework put in place to enable online platforms to guide and monitor their commitments in the fight against disinformation.
It contains 128 specific measures, based on voluntary action by the platforms. The Commission hopes to be able to incorporate it legally into the DSA by July.
See the commitments of the platforms: https://aeur.eu/f/f6o (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)