Report from EuroNews
In Brief – The European Commission has announced that the Code of Conduct on Disinformation will be formally integrated into the Digital Services Act (DSA) governance regime in July. The EU effort to promote best practices to limit disinformation began in 2018 with an initial voluntary Code of Practice that was then strengthened in 2022. The updated version being formally integrated into the DSA is signed by 42 entities including digital platforms, led by giants Google, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok, participants from across the digital advertising ecosystem, fact-checkers, civil society organizations and researchers. It establishes commitments including cutting financial support for purveyors of disinformation, more effective labelling of political advertising, targeted policies to reduce manipulative behavior such as deceptive bots and fake accounts, and providing better tools to empower users, researchers, and the fact-checking community to identify disinformation. The disinformation code is the second to be recently set for DSA integration following the Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech.
Context – Codes of conduct play a formal role in the DSA process. Although they do not replace the requirements of the law, the DSA regulators will recognize that a signatory abiding by a code is an indicator of DSA compliance. They are also voluntary. With the Trump Administration harshly criticizing the EU for policing online content as disinformation that some conservatives argue is just ideological disagreement, and cancelling elections in Romania based on charges of deceptive content on TikTok, which top platforms sign on, how they claim to comply, and how they are judged, may become a very charged issue. Twitter was an initial signatory but pulled out following its acquisition by Elon Musk and the shift from formal fact checkers to Community Notes. X’s efforts to contain disinformation is being investigated. Meta has signed the code but has announced its own plans to drop paid fact checkers and adopt community notes. Google also has signed the code but has reportedly notified the Commission that it would not be adopting fact checking in its search service or on YouTube.