Facebook, Google and Twitter will have to provide monthly updates on how they're tackling misinformation connected to COVID-19 under plans to be unveiled on Wednesday by the European Commission, according to four officials and outside experts who have reviewed the proposals.
The Commission is also expected to call for greater cooperation with international partners, including NATO and the G7 group on combatting digital misinformation, while calling out both Russia and China for efforts to spread disinformation.
This is not the first time that the Commission has pushed tech giants to do more to tackle misinformation. In 2018, Brussels published a voluntary code of practice that urged Facebook, Google and Twitter to report regularly on how they were stopping such falsehoods from spreading; how they were removing automated accounts from their global networks; and how they were increasing transparency around political advertising on the platforms.
The new communication will again call on these social media companies to adhere to this code of practice.
Officials and experts told POLITICO that the contents of the communication, which will be nonbinding for the platforms, had yet to be finalized, and some of the details may still change.
Within the Commission, discussions are ongoing over how the final disinformation draft should be written. For example, questions remain about how the communication could affect people's freedom of expression as the Commission is asking the social media giants to potentially remove reams of individual posts and videos on their networks connected to the coronavirus.
Authors: Mark Scott, Laura Kayali, Laurens Cerulus
https://www.politico.eu/article/european-commission-disinformation-social-media/