Companies such as Meta, Google and Microsoft have agreed to fight online disinformation in accordance with a newly updated EU Code of Practice.

The technology giants, alongside other firms and publishers, said that they aim to follow a strengthened set of commitments designed to combat negative language and misinformation.

A broad set of rules are included in the legislation that firms can choose to adhere to in the fight against digital fakery. Although the Code of Practice is voluntary, parts of it are backed up by the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The legislation expects businesses to carry out steps such as avoiding placing ads next to fake news or profiting off the spread of false information online; and clearly labelling political advertisements.

Other obligations in the EU Code of Practice include making data from social media platforms more transparent and available for researchers, as well as supporting the work of fact checkers.

Users will also gain better protections from disinformation through the new rules. This includes enhanced tools to recognise, understand and flag disinformation, to access authoritative sources, and through media literacy initiatives.

If the companies fail to adhere to the rules or break the Code of Practice, they face the risk of being fined up to 6% of their global turnover.

Commenting on the legislation, Věra Jourová, the EU’s vice president for values and transparency, said: “This new anti-disinformation Code comes at a time when Russia is weaponising disinformation as part of its military aggression against Ukraine, but also when we see attacks on democracy more broadly.

“We now have very significant commitments to reduce the impact of disinformation online and much more robust tools to measure how these are implemented across the EU in all countries and in all its languages.”

The EU has also updated its guidelines to tackle the rise of fake bot accounts and AI-generated deepfakes, which are an increasing issue online for spreading negative content.

Signatories promise to outline their internal policies for dealing with manipulated content and must show their algorithms used for detecting and moderating deepfakes are trustworthy.

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In total, 33 entities have signed up to the latest version, including social media platforms, software vendors, media companies, and advertising industry organisations.

Commenting on the new rules, Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, added: “Disinformation is a form of invasion of our digital space, with tangible impact on our daily lives. Online platforms need to act much more strongly, especially on the issue of funding.

“Spreading disinformation should not bring a single euro to anyone. To be credible, the new Code of Practice will be backed up by the DSA – including for heavy dissuasive sanctions.

“Very large platforms that repeatedly break the Code and do not carry out risk mitigation measures properly risk fines of up to 6% of their global turnover.”

According to the rules outlined in the legislation, signatories will have six months to implement measures in the Code of Practice.

They will be expected to provide a detailed report to the EU Commission at the start of 2023 detailing the actions taken to uphold their commitments.

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