Twitter withdraws from EU code against misinformation – 05/27/2023 – Market

Twitter has decided to withdraw from the European Union (EU) code of good practice against disinformation on the Internet, although “its obligations” remain, tweeted this Saturday (27) the European Commissioner for Industry, Thierry Breton.

“You can run, but you cannot hide. In addition to voluntary commitments, the fight against disinformation will be a legal obligation under the DSA (Digital Services Act) from August 25”, wrote Breton on the social network, owned by Elon Musk.

“Our teams will be prepared to enforce the law,” he warned.

The European code of good practice, created in 2018, is applied by around 30 companies, including industry giants like Meta, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and TikTok.

These groups participated in the drafting of the text, which includes around 40 recommendations, aimed at establishing better cooperation with information verification services and preventing the advertising of pages that disseminate false news.

After acquiring the social network at the end of last year, millionaire Musk eased moderation on Twitter and seems interested in raising the voice of known propagators of false information.

“If (Musk) doesn’t take the code seriously, it’s almost better to drop it,” a European Commission official said on Friday, contacted by AFP.

Twitter, which no longer has a public relations department, responded to an emailed request for comment with a feces emoji.