Twitter Quits The EU’s Voluntary Code Against Disinformation

(CTN News) – Earlier this week, a senior EU official informed media outlets that Twitter had exited a voluntary EU agreement against the spread of disinformation online.

In a tweet posted on Friday night, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said that Twitter has left the EU voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation, but obligations still remain.

Despite the fact that you can run, but you can’t hide. Beyond voluntary commitments, combating disinformation will become a legal obligation under the #DSA on August 25th. Our teams will be ready to enforce.” he added.

In addition, he mentioned the upcoming deadline of less than two months for the EU to implement its new Digital Services Act.

In spite of the fact that Twitter has not yet officially announced its exit from the code, it seems that Elon Musk,

Twitter’s CEO,

Took this decision as a way to “loosen the reins” after buying the platform for $43 billion last year.

In order to reduce costs, the tech billionaire made many changes – including laying off thousands of employees and cutting entire departments – in order to save money.

According to DW, Musk’s aim is to make Twitter a platform where freedom of speech is prioritized, and to do so he has rolled back previous anti-misinformation rules and has thrown Twitter’s verification system into chaos in an attempt to do so.

In order to prevent the spread of negativity online, the platform says it “deboosts” and “demonetizes” extreme negative or hateful tweets to hide them unless a user specifically searches for them.

Nevertheless, posts that contain fake news are moderated in order to include corrections, often coming from Twitter users themselves.

“The current EU Code of Practice on Disinformation includes obligations to track political advertising, stop the monetisation of disinformation, and work with fact-checkers to combat disinformation,” the report states.

In 2018, Twitter signed the code alongside other platforms such as TikTok, Facebook owner Meta, and Google, along with other social media platforms such as Facebook.

Depending on the platform, the code mandates that the platforms report on the progress that they have made in tackling disinformation on a regular basis.

Moreover, Brussels published a report in February showing how online platforms are implementing the code according to the standards.

It was also pointed out that Twitter gave “no specific information or targeted data” related to its transparency commitments, according to the report.

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