EU to curb online misinformation

Users of Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and other social media will soon have a greater say in the content they see on the platforms. By Friday, the big IT companies must comply with tougher EU requirements and do much more to protect users from hate speech, and misinformation in particular. This applies to corona vaccines, the war in Ukraine, interference in European elections and much more. “In the Brexit referendum, for example, there was outside interference, it didn’t just come from the British themselves. It is also believed that other European elections have been influenced from outside. There has not been good monitoring of it,” says Danish Christel Schaldemose, Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democrats and rapporteur on the bill.
     “We want a tool that allows action to be taken without compromising freedom of expression,” she says of the Digital Services Act (DSA) – the toughest EU rules on online content since social media and digital marketplaces emerged. The law also targets social media algorithms that can promote what Schaldemose terms “polarizing content.”     Among the companies covered by the EU’s new digital services laws is X, formerly known as Twitter. Multibillionaire Elon Musk took over the company last year and has since changed the rules for permitted language on the platform so that critics say there is now more misinformation, hate and offensive content. That could put Musk on a collision course with the new EU rules.