Twitter Lags Behind Other Tech Giants In Disinformation Fight, EU Warns—As Musk’s Platform Antagonizes Regulators
Topline
Twitter’s efforts to deal with disinformation have fallen behind different main platforms within the final six months, the European Commission mentioned on Thursday, chastising the platform for not taking its obligations severely sufficient as worries mount over the agency’s potential to reasonable content material underneath the management of billionaire Elon Musk.
Twitter was bought by Elon Musk final 12 months.
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The Key Facts
Twitter failed to offer the European Union with a whole report on the way it has tackled disinformation within the final six months, in response to a press release from the bloc’s govt department.
The Commission mentioned Twitter’s report, which was supposed to stipulate the platform’s efforts to implement the EU’s new anti-disinformation constitution, was incomplete, lacked information and didn’t give any data on its plans to work with reality checkers.
Out of dozens of tech firms together with Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and Twitch requested to submit a progress replace, Twitter was the one one to offer an incomplete report, the EU mentioned.
European Commission Vice President for Values Věra Jourová, who spearheads the disinformation code, mentioned she was “disappointed to see that Twitter’s report lags behind others” and expects a “more serious commitment” to tackling disinformation from the corporate.
Twitter has not but responded to our request. SME’Request for feedback on the report
News Peg
Compliance with the EU’s disinformation code is voluntary however eases among the necessities underneath the bloc’s powerful Digital Services Act, which regulators will start imposing in September and will tremendous firms 6% of annual international turnover for failing to correctly reasonable content material. Twitter signed up for the scheme shortly earlier than Musk grew to become CEO. So much has occurred since then. His sweeping headcount reductions, acknowledged commitments to absolute free speech and drastic coverage modifications—together with reinstating swaths of banned customers like former President Donald Trump—have each irked and fearful regulators over the platform’s potential or willingness to deal with main points. This is simply the most recent step in a string of actions to anger EU regulators who repeatedly warned Musk about how Twitter must do extra to safeguard its customers. The full lack of the platform’s workplace in Brussels, the center of EU politics, probably soured relations additional.
Tangent
Musk’s Twitter is anticipated to finish free entry to its API on Thursday, a characteristic that’s very important for researchers inspecting the platform and monitoring matters like political polarization and misinformation. The EU’s high diplomat warned it may hamper efforts to fight disinformation at a time when extra effort is required, notably with Russia’s spreading of propaganda over Ukraine. Jourová echoed considerations over Kremlin propaganda on Thursday and mentioned Russia is engaged in a “full-blown disinformation war and the platforms need to live up to their responsibilities.”
Important Quote
Thierry Breton, the EU’s Internal Market Commissioner, mentioned the distinction in high quality amongst stories from completely different firms ought to come as “no surprise.” Quality has assorted “greatly according to the resources companies have allocated to this project,” he added, with out referencing Twitter immediately.
SME Valuation
$191.4 billion. That’s the estimated internet price of Elon Musk, in response to SME’ real-time tracker. He’s the second-richest individual on the earth after Bernard Arnault, the French luxurious items magnate.
Keep an eye fixed out for this stuff
According to the code, firms comply with file up to date stories as soon as each six months. Twitter will likely be required to submit one other report, together with different signatories in July.
Additional Reading
Twitter Reportedly Leaves Brussels—Europe’s Regulatory Hub—Amid Concerns About Musk’s Content Moderation Plans (SME)