A top European Union official is in Silicon Valley to check whether Twitter is ready to comply with the bloc’s tough new digital rulebook, a set of sweeping new standards that the world’s biggest online platforms are expected to adopt in just two months. have to follow.
European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who oversees digital policy, is the EU’s lead figure working to bring tech companies into line with the Digital Services Act, which bars companies from posting hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content on their sites. Will compel you to act. This will be effective from August 25 for the largest platforms.
The legislation, with new regulations in the pipeline for data and artificial intelligence, has put Brussels at the forefront of a growing global movement to crack down on Big Tech.
Breton tweeted about his meeting at Twitter headquarters on Thursday to conduct a voluntary “stress test” in preparation for the new rules.
“The company is taking this exercise very seriously,” he said, adding that he had “constructive conversations” with owner Elon Musk and new CEO Linda Yacarino.
The mock exercise tested Twitter’s readiness to deal with the DSA’s requirements, which include protecting children online in both normal and extreme situations, and detecting and mitigating risks such as disinformation.
Despite Musk’s claims to the contrary, independent researchers have found that misinformation as well as hate speech has been spreading on Twitter since the billionaire Tesla CEO took over the company last year. Musk has reinstated notorious election deniers, overhauled Twitter’s verification system and fired most of the employees who were responsible for moderating posts.
Last month, Breton warned Twitter that it “cannot hide” from its obligations after the social media site abandoned the block’s voluntary “code of practice” on online disinformation, which other social media platforms have pledged to support. Have done
Under the Digital Services Act, tackling disinformation will become a legal requirement.
Musk has said Twitter will comply.
Asked about the DSA, Musk told France 2 TV channel this week: “If the law is passed, Twitter will follow the law.”
Breton’s agenda includes a discussion on Friday about the EU’s digital regulations and upcoming artificial intelligence regulations with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, whose company makes the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.
The DSA is part of a wider update to the EU’s digital rulebook aimed at forcing tech companies to clean up their platforms and better protect online users.
For European users of big tech platforms, it will be easier to report illegal content such as hate speech, and they will get more information about why certain content has been recommended to them.
Violations would lead to fines of up to 6% of annual global revenue – amounting to billions of dollars for some tech giants – or even a ban from operating in the European Union, home to 450 million consumers.
Breton is also meeting with Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, a major supplier of semiconductors used in AI systems, to negotiate an EU Chips Act to boost the continent’s chip manufacturing industry.
Meanwhile, the European Union is finalizing its AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules on the emerging technology, which has drawn fascination as well as fears that it could infringe on privacy, cost jobs. can affect, infringe copyrights and much more.
Final approval is expected by the end of the year, but it won’t take effect until two years later. Bratton is advocating for a voluntary “AI Pact” to help companies get ready to adopt it.
