The European Commission has "categorically rejected" accusations by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of alleged censorship by the European Union.
Zuckerberg made the remarks on Tuesday when he announced that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, would replace all of its factcheckers in the US with 'Community Notes', which allow users to provide context underneath posts.
The decision does not impact Meta employees in Europe for now, but Zuckerberg said that EU regulation "institutionalises censorship and makes it harder to innovate."
European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho rebuked the accusation of censorship on Wednesday.
"We categorically reject any allegations of censorship," she said.
Community notes under investigation
Pinho's colleague responsible for technological sovereignty, Thomas Regnier, emphasised that nothing in the new Digital Services Act (DSA) mandates the removal of legal content.
The legislation does, however, require platforms to take measures against systemic risks, such as disinformation or attacks on elections. It allows platforms to choose their method, provided it is effective. The effectiveness of community notes is currently being examined in the investigation into platform X (formerly Twitter).
The legislation also requires platforms to conduct prior risk assessments. If Meta wanted to implement the community notes system in the EU, it would need to carry out such a risk assessment and submit it to the Commission.
