“You can run but you can’t flee,” replied dryly – on Twitter – the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, as a new regulation in this area comes into force next August.
The battle between Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, and the European Union seems well and truly launched, despite the smiling photos of the CEO of the social network with the President of the Republic last week at the Élysée. Indeed, Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, announced it, via a tweet: the blue bird has left the European Union’s “code of good practice on disinformation”.
This Code of Practice is a voluntary EU program to tackle disinformation and hate speech online. Launched in 2018, it was beefed up last year and signed by around thirty different players. We find the major social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch and TikTok, but also Google and Microsoft as well as collectives of fact-checkers and NGOs.
Cut disinformation funding
By signing, the platforms agreed to several dozen pledges, one of the key pledges being to dry up disinformation revenue. Many rely on the virality of fake news to make money, with advertising. With this code, they theoretically undertake to avoid posting ads near conspiratorial content, and to check the sites on which they post ads.
But that’s not all. The platforms have also undertaken to be more transparent about political advertisements by identifying them, to fight against “robot” who amplify the dissemination of fake news, against “deepfake” which make it possible to fake images in order to create malicious information. They are also meant to support the work of disinformation researchers.
“Twitter will be banned from the EU if they don’t follow our rules”
Except that the voluntary side of the program will soon end. From August 25, a law will place the digital giants under close surveillance by the European Commission to verify that they are really fighting effectively against disinformation, online hatred and counterfeiting. Hence Thierry Breton’s thinly veiled threat to Twitter when they announced their withdrawal: “You can run, but you can’t hide”, writes the European commissioner. Threats repeated on franceinfo, Monday, May 29, by the French Minister for the Digital Transition and Telecommunications, Jean-Noël Barrot. “Twitter will be banned from the European Union, if it does not comply with our rules”he assures.
Violators of this new European regulation will face fines of up to 6% of their worldwide turnover. As a last resort, in the event of repeated infringements, the sanctions could actually go as far as the temporary banning of these platforms in the European Union, as Minister Jean-Noël Barrot suggests.