KEY POINTS
France’s digital minister Jean-Noël Barrot has threatened to ban Twitter in the European Union if it repeatedly refuses to follow the bloc’s rules for digital platforms. The EU’s European Digital Services Act (DSA) will go into effect at the end of August, and it has laid out specific rules for very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSEs) in a bid to regulate the internet. Barrot’s comments came days after Twitter reportedly withdrew from the EU’s voluntary disinformation code practices.
Twitter leaves EU voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation.
But obligations remain. You can run but you can’t hide.
Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting disinformation will be legal obligation under #DSA as of August 25.
Our teams will be ready for enforcement.
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) May 26, 2023
“Twitter leaves EU voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation,” said Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner. However, he made it clear that Twitter’s “obligations remain.” Twitter signed up voluntarily to the EU’s Code on Disinformation in 2018 when it was still under different management. This time, it appears the platform is leaning on its own fact-checking and anti-disinformation regulations under its Community Notes, TechCrunch reported. The feature allows Twitter users to add more information or context to tweets that they believe need to be disputed.
Musk had previously endorsed the law. He told Breton in May last year that the DSA was “exactly aligned with my thinking.” This is not the first time the EU has threatened to block Twitter. In November, Breton warned Musk during a call that Twitter could be banned if it does not agree to an “extensive independent audit” and fails to lift an “arbitrary” system of reinstating banned users.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
👋 @elonmusk
In Europe, the bird will fly by our 🇪🇺 rules.#DSA https://t.co/95W3qzYsal
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 28, 2022
The Tesla CEO had an exchange of words with Breton after he took over the platform last October. “The bird is freed,” the tech billionaire tweeted and Breton replied, “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.”
Musk has faced criticism from the EU in recent months over some of the changes he implemented since acquiring the platform, one of which was the ban on some prominent tech journalists in mid-December. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office (AA) raised concerns about the ban and how it could affect press freedom. Vĕra Jourová, the EU vice president for values and transparency, said it was “worrying” how Twitter arbitrarily suspended the accounts of journalists. “There are red lines. And sanctions, soon,” Jourová tweeted.
In March, fact-checking network Science Feedback said in a report that “misinformation superspreaders” thrived on Twitter since the Musk takeover. While it was difficult to pinpoint the exact cause for this, the organization raised concerns about whether an algorithm was tweaked for recommendations. “One hypothesis we had was whether one of Elon Musk’s first decisions was to tweak the recommender algorithm to give more voice to superspreaders or remove some sort of ‘reduced reach’ status for these accounts, which would amount to the same thing,” said Bastien Carniel, data and policy lead at Science Feedback. Current and former Twitter employees told BBC Panorama in March it has become difficult to protect users from disinformation, hate and child sexual exploitation since changes were implemented by Musk.
Elon Musk has pulled Twitter out from the EU’s voluntary disinformation code, and the bloc isn’t pleased with this move.
2023-06-10 00:30:04
Source from www.ibtimes.com