LONDON. A prominent European Union official, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova, expressed concerns on Tuesday over the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, labeling it as the primary disseminator of fake news. She called upon the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, to adhere to the European Union’s regulations designed to combat disinformation.
In the lead-up to imminent elections, Jourova emphasized that Google, TikTok, Microsoft, and Meta also have responsibilities in addressing the issue of disinformation, much of which originates from Russia. The European Commission Vice President stated that Russia employs social media as a tool to wage a “war of ideas” against democracy.
Jourova highlighted Moscow’s disinformation campaign, describing it as a “multimillion-euro weapon of mass manipulation” with targets both domestically within Russia and internationally across Europe and the world. She made these remarks during a press briefing held in Brussels.
With elections scheduled in Slovakia and Poland in the coming weeks, followed by a bloc-wide vote next year, Jourova stressed that major online platforms must address the risk of online interference in the democratic process.
Jourova cautioned that the Kremlin and other malicious actors are likely to exploit the design features of these platforms for manipulation and disinformation.
Her statements followed an update on the European Union’s 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation, which involves six online platforms in Poland, Slovakia, and Spain. Notably, Twitter had the highest prevalence of disinformation and the most significant ratio of disinformation actors among the platforms studied.
“Twitter has the highest discoverability” of disinformation, according to the report.
Despite Twitter’s departure from the voluntary code after its acquisition by Elon Musk, Jourova made it clear that Musk’s company, X, is now under scrutiny. The Code of Practice on Disinformation has been incorporated into a stringent set of mandatory European regulations known as the Digital Services Act, subjecting major online platforms, including X, to heightened oversight.
Jourova issued a warning to Musk, stating that he cannot evade responsibility simply because Twitter exited the code voluntarily. She emphasized that there are now legal obligations in place, and Twitter must comply with these regulations.
Under the code, online platforms commit to implementing measures aimed at reducing disinformation and are required to submit regular reports. The first six-month reports outlining their progress in meeting these commitments were released on Tuesday. An attempt to seek comment from X’s press team received an automated response stating, “Busy now, please check back later.”
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
