Elon Musk removes Twitter from the EU Disinformation Code of Practice

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Twitter has withdrawn from the European Union’s Code of Practice on Online Disinformation, according to the bloc’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton.

in a cheep last night, which confirmed Previous reports on Twitter’s imminent exit from the EU Code — Breton issued the social media platform a blunt warning: tell Twitter that it cannot hide from incoming legal liability in this area.

“Twitter abandons the EU voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation. But the obligations remain. You can run but you can’t hide,” Breton wrote, a reference to the obligations the platform must legally meet as a very large online platform (VLOP) under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

“Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting misinformation will be a legal obligation under #DSA starting August 25. Our teams will be ready for the application.”

The pan-European law, which came into force in Novemberrequires VLOPs like Twitter to assess and mitigate systemic risks to civic discourse and electoral processes, such as disinformation.

The deadline for fulfilling the obligations of the VLOPs in the DSA is three months from now.

An emailed request for comment to Twitter’s press office returned an automated response containing a poop emoji.

Previous management at Twitter signed the platform to the EU Voluntary Code on Disinformation. in 2018. But Twitter’s current owner, billionaire Elon Musk, seems determined to fight the EU over moderating the speech, denying comments he first made to Breton in person when Musk was claimed to agree with the bloc’s digital rulebook.

This is an expensive fight for Musk. Violations of the DSA can result in penalties of up to 6% of global annual turnover.

The Commission also warned that serious and repeated breaches could lead it to block access to a service, raising the possibility of Twitter losing access to a region with some 440 million consumers.

The original EU Disinformation Code had committed Twitter to take steps to combat the spread of misinformation on its service by targeting associated ad revenue, attacking bots and fake accounts, providing consumers with tools to report disinformation, and training researchers to study.

In June 2022the Commission released a strengthened version and announced a transparency center to monitor compliance.

Importantly, it also announced that compliance with the Code would count towards signatories’ DSA compliance. So Twitter’s deliberate withdrawal now, with just three months until the law bites, signals that it’s upending the bloc’s broader digital services rulebook.

Before Musk came along, it’s fair to say that Twitter never exactly excelled at quashing botnets or removing toxic nonsense. However, since he took ownership of the platform last fall, after his $44 billion purchase closed, there has been a clear and calculated pushback, with obviously damaging steps taken by Musk leading the platform in the opposite direction. Like drastic cuts to moderation staff and a massive increase in the price Twitter charges outside researchers to access data through its API, impeding the ability of outsiders to study topics like misinformation, to name two. of the countless acts of operational vandalism by Musk that have had the effect of undermining veracity and encouraging trolls and agents of chaos to run amok on Twitter.

The EU fired an early warning shot at Musk, in November, when he said publicly that Twitter had “a big job” ahead of it if it wanted to prevent DSA breaches, including specifically in areas of name checking like misinformation. That was followed, in February, with another warning that Twitter was not meeting its reporting commitments under the Disinformation Code. So it was probably only a matter of time before Musk formally pulled the plug on the only thing he can technically do.

But while the Code remains voluntary, as noted above, the EU has attached it to broader DSA compliance, as a de facto guide to meeting the latter’s strict obligations for VLOPs to address disinformation. So Twitter’s deliberate exit increases its regulatory risk, essentially inviting the Commission to sanction flagrant breaches of the rules or risk the law becoming a failure.

As we reported last year, this collision course was always a strong possibility with Musk taking over Twitter. It increasingly seems like an inevitability, driven by the billionaire’s goal of promoting a far-right political ideology that demands he give aid to disinformation so the seeds of anti-democratic conspiracy theories can fly. (TOs Charlie Warzel put it in a recent Atlantic article: “[Twitter] no doubt it has been transformed under [Musk’s] leadership in an alternative social media platform, one that provides a haven for far-right influencers and promotes the interests, biases, and conspiracy theories of the right wing of American politics.”

Musk’s transformation of Twitter into a far-right fan site can certainly fly in the US; under constitutional protections for free speech, the worst you can do is annoy some people and kick progression users off your platform (so you basically hit yourself in the pocket, even though we know you have wealth to spend).

But Musk’s track record of promotional encouragement for the conspiracy puts him on a direct collision course with EU regulators who have taken action against blatantly undemocratic rigging. So get ready for what looks like an expensive fight.