Social media giants Facebook, Google and Twitter, have taken active measures to combat misinformation on their platforms, but they must still do more, the European Commission urged on Friday, a few days before the European elections. "We can congratulate ourselves on the active measures taken by the three platforms against manipulative actions making use of their services, including against coordinated misinformation operations," the Commission stated.
The trio also provided information on measures aimed at tightening up the monitoring of advertisements placed. "However, there remains a lot to be done to strengthen the integrity of their services, notably in advertising," the EU executive pointed out. Furthermore, the data provided was always incomplete through its lack of the precision required to enable an independent and precise evaluation, it added.
From now until the end of 2019, the Commission will conduct a complete assessment of the initial twelve-month period of the best practices code to which the trio consented at the end of last year. The Commission had opted earlier for prompter action. But "if the results proved unsatisfactory, the Commission could propose other measures, notably of a regulatory nature," it continued to threaten.
In addition, the EU gave itself the means on Friday to sanction those responsible for cyber attacks from outside the Union, the European Council of Ministers announced in a bulletin. "Restrictive measures include banning entry to the EU and freezing assets. In addition, it is forbidden for persons and organisations from the EU to place funds at the disposal of the persons and organisations included on the list," the release specified.
The Brussels Times
Combating misinformation 'can be done better,' says European Commission
