EU asks Facebook, Twitter & others to take more steps to tackle fake news

European Commission on Thursday asked tech giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter and or companies to try to be more effective in tackling disinformation. In 2018, all se companies including Mozilla and ors agreed to a self-regulatory code of practice to counter fake news. Microsoft and TikTok subsequently joined group.

'Platforms need to become more accountable'

According to a report by seen an international news ncy, Commission has found several shortcomings in code following an assessment of its first year in operation. "se can be grouped in four bro categories: inconsistent and incomplete application of code across platforms and member states, lack of uniform definitions, existence of several gaps in cover of code commitments, and limitations intrinsic to self-regulatory nature of code," report said.

Commission Vice President for values and transparency, Vera Jourova, has called for more action to counter new risks. "As we also witness new threats and actors time is ripe to go furr and propose new measures. platforms need to become more accountable and transparent. y need to open up and provide better access to data, among ors," report quoted Jourova as saying.

Jourova is currently working on a European Democracy Action Plan to make democracy more resilient to digital threats. commission is also set to propose new rules called Digital Services Act by end of year which will increase social media's responsibilities and liability for content on ir platforms. 

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In June, EU officials h said that Facebook, Google and Twitter should provide monthly reports on ir fight against disinformation while calling out Russia and China for ir roles in spre of fake news.  comments by EU foreign policy he Josep Borrell and European Commission's Vice President for values and transparency Vera Jourova underscored bloc's concerns about prevalence of misleing news on COVID-19 and attempts by foreign actors to influence Europe.

"It really showed that disinformation does t only harm health of our democracies, it also harms health of our citizens. It can negatively impact ecomy and undermine response of public authorities and refore weaken health measures," Jourova told a news conference.

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(With ncy inputs)