Facebook, TikTok commit to EU disinformation fight, but X opts out
Major tech companies, including Facebook and TikTok, have formally pledged to ramp up efforts against disinformation in the European Union, according to Brussels on Thursday.
The announcement comes just days after the new US administration criticized the EU's online content regulations, News.Az reports, citing AFP.
Missing from the list of 42 platforms -- including those owned by Google, Meta and Microsoft -- who committed to a strengthened code of conduct was tech billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X.
Musk withdrew his platform -- then known as Twitter -- from the original code in May 2023 and he has repeatedly railed against the European Union's content moderation rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA forces all digital firms to police content online and tackle the spread of mis- and disinformation. The EU has been probing X under the DSA since December 2023, including its efforts to combat disinformation on the platform.
The law is at the centre of growing tensions between American big tech and the new US administration on one side, and the EU on the other.
US Vice President JD Vance slammed the DSA during his speech on Tuesday at the AI summit in Paris, saying it was not up to national capitals to "prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation".
The EU has refused to comment on Vance's remarks.
Similar news
