BELGIUM: Elon Musk has been warned by the EU to comply with new legislation on false news and Russian propaganda after it was discovered that X, formerly Twitter, has the highest percentage of disinformation posts among major social media sites.
In a recent analysis, the ratio of false information was examined. TikTok and LinkedIn have since erased millions of fraudulent accounts, exposing for the first time the scope of fake news on social media in the EU. Facebook was the second worst offender, according to the first-ever analysis documenting posts considered illegal under the Digital Services Act.
Facebook, Google, TikTok, and Microsoft have signed up to the EU-developed anti-disinformation code of practice to prepare for new regulations. Twitter abandoned the code of conduct, but it is required by the new law to abide by the guidelines or risk being banned throughout the EU.
European commissioner Věra Jourová stated that Elon Musk knows that quitting the code of practice does not absolve him of responsibility.
A 200-page report reveals that major platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, have been preparing for compliance with a new law in the first half of 2023. The report reveals Facebook’s covert efforts to combat Russian propaganda, hate speech, and misinformation.
According to Jourová, the Russian state is engaged in a war of ideas to contaminate information, creating a false perception that democracy is no better than autocracy. The report highlights the importance of cooperation and monitoring for compliance.
Microsoft prevented 6.7 million phoney accounts and 24,000 bogus content creations on LinkedIn. YouTube removed over 400 channels linked to the Russian-state-sponsored Internet Research Agency. TikTok removed nearly 6 million phoney accounts. Google rejected over 140,000 political advertisers for failing identity verification processes and banned advertising from over 300 websites connected to state-funded propaganda sites.
Meta has expanded its partner base to 26 and now covers 22 EU languages, including Czech and Slovak. According to the EU, a sign of the value consumers have on marking false information is the fact that 37% of users also decided not to share after being informed of bogus news.
Prior to important elections in Slovakia on Sunday and Poland on October 15, the EU is especially concerned about ongoing Russian propaganda on social media. It also urges TikTok to adhere to data protection laws, following a €345 million fine for violating kid data protection laws.
A network examined 832 Ukrainian conflict films, deleting 211, according to the report. Microsoft reported elevating reliable material or degrading dubious information. According to Jourová, the report suggests Russia is waging a “war of ideas”, and Kremlin misinformation was still widely spread on major platforms.
She claimed that Slovakia had been selected by the Kremlin as “fertile soil” for splintering and interfering with democracy more so than Poland.
She emphasized the importance of being aware of elections, particularly those for the European Parliament, and the risk of disinformation. She emphasized the Kremlin’s propaganda as a multimillion-euro weapon of mass manipulation, targeting both Russians and Europeans.
She stated on Twitter that “disinformation actors were found to have significantly more followers than their non-disinformation counterparts and tend to have joined the platform more recently than non-disinformation users”.
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