Major technology platforms have joined 34 signatories in committing to the EU Commission’s attempts to fight online disinformation by removing financial incentives and empowering researchers and fact checkers. Credit: Etienne Ansotte/EU The European Commission has strengthened its Code of Practice on Disinformation, following guidance published in 2021 that it should be updated to take into account events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war with Ukraine. The latest version builds on the original code of practice that was established in 2018, setting out a number of new commitments by both technology platforms and the broader industry to better fight disinformation online. Demonetizing the distribution of disinformation; ensuring the transparency of political advertising; maximizing cooperation with fact-checkers; and providing researchers with better access to data are all amongst the pledges signatories have committed to. “The Commission now has very significant commitments to reduce the impact of disinformation online and much more robust tools to measure how these are implemented across the EU in all countries and in all its languages,” Věra Jourová, vice president for values and transparency at the European Commission, said as part of a press release announcing the new code of practice. The code has been initially signed by 34 parties, including major social media platforms like Meta, Twitter, and TikTok, and tech giants including Adobe, Google, and Microsoft. Amazon was a notable absentee. The code will be enforced through the Digital Services Act, a piece of EU legislation that was approved in April 2022 to better protect European users from online disinformation and illegal content, goods, and services. Signatories will have six months to implement the measures to which they have signed up and will be required to provide the Commission with their first implementation reports at the beginning of 2023. A newly formed taskforce will then meet at six-month intervals to monitor and adapt the commitments in view of technological, societal, market, and legislative developments. Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market at the European Commission, said in a statement that spreading disinformation should never be a financially viable practice and that online platforms needed to be stronger when it came to tackling the problem, especially on the issue of funding. “Very large platforms that repeatedly break the Code and do not carry out risk mitigation measures properly risk fines of up to 6% of their global turnover,” he said. The strengthened Code of Practice contains 44 commitments and 128 specific measures that can be broadly grouped into the following areas: Cutting financial incentives for purveyors of disinformation Transparency of political advertising Ensuring the integrity of services Empowering users Empowering researchers Empowering the fact-checking community Establishing a transparency center and taskforce Strengthening a monitoring framework Related content news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills opinion Why you’ll soon have a digital clone of your own AI isn’t going to replace you at work. You will. By Mike Elgan May 02, 2024 7 mins Augmented Reality Generative AI Virtual Reality news analysis Workers with these AI skills are getting cash premiums As AI deployments become more critical to digital transformation projects, organizations are struggling to find skilled workers to support the new technology, so they're paying premiums for prospective hires or current employees who obtain the n By Lucas Mearian May 01, 2024 7 mins Generative AI IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe