The companies have promised to fight bots and improve transparency.
Some of the most well-known personalities in technology have joined the European Union’s intensifying anti-disinformation campaign. The EU has produced a stricter Code of Practice on Disinformation, which includes promises from Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok, Twitch, and Twitter, among others. The new standards are intended to improve upon the existing code while also expanding it to address lessons acquired in recent years, such as those from the epidemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Participants in the new code have pledged to make greater steps to deprive disinformation providers of cash, such as by deleting advertisements. Bots, phony accounts, and deepfakes, which are used to promote false claims, must also be addressed by the signatories. Supporters will need to set up transparency centers and task groups to demonstrate how they’re putting the code into practice (supported up by better monitoring), as well as enhanced data access for researchers. They’ll also have to designate political commercials more explicitly. Users will have greater tools to recognize and report bogus claims, and fact-checking will be expanded to include all EU countries and languages.
Those agreeing to the code have six months to implement the necessary changes. They’ll share their first implementation reports at the start of 2023.
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The EU first published the code in 2018, and asserts that it helped fight disinformation surrounding elections, the pandemic and Ukraine. However, there’s little doubt that the situation has changed in the four years since. Bots have become a significant problem, and disinformation more frequently spreads through livestreams in addition to recorded media and social network posts. In theory, the revised approach will not only more catch more attempts to peddle fake info, but do more to discourage that peddling in the first place.
As before, the code is strictly voluntary. This won’t stop sites that either turn a blind eye to disinformation campaigns or don’t feel they can adequately clamp down on bad behavior. With numerous tech giants involved, though, this could make it considerably harder for fakers to gain much traction in Europe and beyond.
