Big-tech must up fight against Russian disinformation, says EU values chief
Twitter infected more than any other social platform
It's not business as usual, says EU VP with childhood memories of Russian tanks rolling into Czechoslovakia: it's a war to defend democracy.
Social media platforms must do more to defend democracy against Russian information warfare ahead of European elections next year, the bloc's vice president of values told a meeting of Big Tech firms in Brussels yesterday.
EU Commission chief Věra Jourová commended Big Tech firms for disclosures they had made under the European Union's voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation, by which they committed to publish data on their efforts to track and remove false information.
But that wasn't good enough, Jourová said. Russian disinformation and propaganda is still "very present" on social media, and poses a significant risk to EU elections.
Twitter, which Jourová said carried the "largest ratio of mis- and disinformation posts", had planned to resign from the EU's voluntary programme earlier this year, before changing its mind.
In addition, few signatories to the Code had filed transparency reports by yesterday, when the Commission chief marked the first full reports that Big Tech firms submitted under its requirements.
Of 44 firms that signed the Code of Conduct in 2022, just five filed full reports yesterday. Twenty-seven firms filed their first reports under the scheme in January. The EU's transparency website published no information on the status of non-reporters or the extant list of signatories.
Russia "polluting our information space"
"The Russian state has engaged in the war of ideas to pollute our information space with half-truth and lies to create a false image that democracy is no better than autocracy," Jourová told attendees at the meeting.
"This is a multi-million euro weapon of mass manipulation. The Kremlin fights with bombs in Ukraine, but with words everywhere else, including in the EU."
Malicious actors are trying to undermine democracies, and it is "not business as usual. I expect the platforms to do more," said Jourová. Born a Czechoslovakian, she has admitted to being motivated by the childhood memory of an invading Russian tank driving up her street.
Reports the EU published yesterday revealed that YouTube cancelled 400 video channels it said were running a coordinated disinformation campaign with links to a Russian state-sponsored agency. TikTok removed 211 videos about the Russia-Ukraine war after they failed a fact-checking system it has set up with news agency Reuters.
A Microsoft algorithm promoted or downgraded results in its Bing search engine according to its assessment of their truthfulness; and Google withdrew ads from almost 300 sites it linked to state-funded propaganda.