BRUSSELS: Twitter “chose confrontation” by exiting a voluntary European Union (EU) disinformation code of practice that sets ground rules for a looming European law on digital services, an EU commissioner said on Monday.
Vera Jourova told reporters that the EU believed this was a mistake of Twitter. It has chosen the hard way, a way of confrontation.
She said Twitter’s compliance with the new Digital Services Act entering force on 25 August 25 would be scrutinized urgently and vigorously.
The European Commission announced on 27 May that the social media giant Twitter had opted to leave the code of practice to which other big online platforms such as Microsoft, Google, and TikTok continue to adhere.
The voluntary agreement, launched in 2018 and strengthened in 2022 with input from industry players, contains over 3 dozen pledges, such as not promoting actors that distribute disinformation and better cooperation with fact-checkers.
It acts as a test feeder to the DSA, which would impose legal obligations on major platforms and penalties that could go up to 6% of a company’s global revenues in case of violation.
Twitter in Elon Musk’s hands
Since Elon Musk bought Twitter for 44 billion dollars in October, it has cut over 80% of the workforce and eliminated many moderators who vetted content for harmful messages and disinformation.
Jourova said that she could not predict what decisions the commission might make about Twitter’s likely distribution of disinformation once the new law comes into force.
But she said that signatory parties in the code of practice would have an “easier situation” as they would already have removed the “burden of proof”.
Jourova observed that there was an interplay between the Digital Services Act, which was enforceable, and the code of practice, which is a voluntary pact.
