Google, Microsoft, Meta, Twitter, TikTok sign agreement to fight disinformation

Prominent global tech and social media companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, Twitter, TikTok, Adobe, Vimeo and others have recently signed new European Commission rules that fight disinformation.

The newly updated Code of Practice on Disinformation is a revised version of the 2018 Code. The new policy has been signed and presented by 34 signatories and was finalised on 16 June. 

According to the official announcement by the European Commission, the 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation is built to tackle any measures of online disinformation and will be included in the legislation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising and the Digital Services Act. 

The new code specifically enforces 44 commitments and 128 specific measures to achieve its goal of fighting false information and includes areas such as demonetising financial incentives for purveyors of disinformation, making political advertising more transparent, empowering social media and tech users with better protection from disinformation and helping researchers build better support and research on disinformation.

Signatories who signed for the 2022 Code of Practice also agreed to providing better and wider access to platforms' data to information researchers, maintaining regular updates on relevant data via a permanent task force, upholding a Transparency Centre for an easier public overview of the new code's guidelines and enforcing a strengthened monitoring framework by making mandatory baseline reports. 

The task force assembled by the European Commission will meet at least every six months to ensure better adaptation of the new commitments as per the 2022 Code of Practice. 

Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission, stated in a press statement that this new anti-disinformation regulation has been implemented at a time when Russia is weaponising disinformation - using false information and fake news as a means of military aggression against Ukraine.

The companies that have signed the agreement of this new code have been given six months to implement the commitments and measures against disinformation as per their agreed terms.

Apple, a big name in the global tech and information market, is absent from the list of signatories that have agreed to this new code of conduct.