Vera Jourova – Photo © European Union 2023
(BRUSSELS) – X, formerly Twitter, has the largest ratio of mis/disinformation posts, the EU Commission announced Tuesday, as it delivered its second set of reports on implementation of its Code of Practice on Disinformation.
The finding was disclosed by EC vice-president Vera Jourova, who presented new reports on how the signatories to the EU’s new Code of Practice on Disinformation of 2022 (Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok) have turned into practice their commitments to reduce the spread of disinformation.
One of the biggest players, X, formerly known as Twitter, however pulled out of the code, which has 44 signatories, but is voluntary.
The progress reports show further efforts by signatories to enhance transparency and provide relevant data. Having committed to report every six months, this is the first set of reporting that covers a full half-year period.
Ms Jourova stressed the importance of fighting disinformation: “Disinformation is still one of the greatest risks to the European democratic information space, including that related to Russia’s war in Ukraine and elections. As Europeans will prepare to head to polling stations in 2024, all actors must do their part in fighting online disinformation and foreign interference to protect our online debate. The Code proves to be a useful exercise, but we all have to do more. I call for the platforms’ full engagement in applying the commitments they took under the Code to help ensure resilience of democracy.”
The reports show improvements, but further efforts are needed to provide more targeted, complete, and meaningful data, says the Commission. Additionally, signatories reported about their efforts to provide safeguards regarding new generative AI systems and features on their services.
The reports also include a dedicated chapter on Ukraine-related disinformation.
Google reports that, between January and April 2023, YouTube terminated more than 400 channels involved in coordinated influence operations linked to the Russian-state sponsored Internet Research Agency (IRA).
Google also has removed ads from almost 300 sites linked to state-funded propaganda sites.
Meta reports expanding its fact-checking partnerships to 26 partners covering 22 languages in the EU, which now includes also Czech and Slovak.
TikTok’s fact-checking efforts cover Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and 17 European languages, including through a new partnership with Reuters. In this context, 832 videos related to the war have been fact-checked, of which 211 have been removed.
Microsoft highlights that Bing Search has either promoted information or downgraded questionable information in relation to almost 800 thousand search queries related to the crisis.
