Twitter named the main source of fake news in the EU

Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission, said that social network X is the platform with the highest percentage of disinformation in the world. This is reported by Detector Media with reference to Bloomberg.

The official made her statement against the backdrop of reports published by the European Union on how each of the major tech companies, including Meta, Google, and TikTok, is fighting fakes.

Media experts note that most major platforms have agreed to work with the EU on a voluntary code of conduct. The goal is to set industry standards for fact-checking and other measures.

«X, formerly Twitter, which is no longer subject to the code, is the platform with the highest percentage of posts with false information or disinformation,» Jourova said.

At the same time, she said, some platforms have already begun to combat Russian disinformation. For example, in the first four months of 2023, Google shut down more than 400 channels involved in the influence operations of the terrorist state. Meta announced that it has expanded its fact-checking partnership to 22 languages in the European Union.

The journalists point out that last month, the Digital Services Act, which regulates content on platforms, came into force in the EU.

«Since Twitter has been defined as a very large online platform, of course there are obligations under a strict law.So, my message to Twitter is, 'You have to follow the strict laws, and we are watching what you do,'» Jourova emphasized.

She added that the influx of Russian disinformation is «especially acute» in Slovakia, where elections will be held on September 30. The politician called on social media to step up the fight against Russian disinformation ahead of the US and EU elections.

As a reminder, in early September, the EU recognized that Elon Musk’s X played an important role in making Russian propaganda about Ukraine influence a much larger number of people than before the war. «During 2022, the audience and reach of Kremlin-backed social media accounts increased significantly across Europe,» the European lawmakers said in a study. «Preliminary analysis suggests that the reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts increased further in the first half of 2023, in particular due to the erosion of Twitter’s security standards.»