The EC will seek to expand the reporting programme to platforms such as WhatsApp and TikTok not currently signed up to the Code of Conduct.
Background: In March 2020, the EC and the European Council committed to counter disinformation related to COVID-19 as part of the measures EU institutions took in response to the pandemic. On 10 June 2020, the EC and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy issued a joint Communication identifying the key challenges of the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’, and the next steps that need to be taken to address them.
Platforms are asked to take responsibility: In the joint communication, the EC demands that platforms deepen their work to combat the risks that emerged during the pandemic. Drawing on the experience gained with the monitoring of the Code of Practice ahead of the 2019 European elections, the EC will establish a monitoring and reporting programme under the Code (focused on COVID-19 related disinformation), and aim to extend it to platforms that are currently not signed up to the Code of Practice, such as WhatsApp and TikTok.
What will the reports include? Platforms will be asked to produce monthly reports with four main features. These will include: promotion of authoritative content (e.g. health agencies, national and EU authorities, professional media); users’ awareness (i.e. what platforms do to tell users they are seeing disinformation); manipulative behaviour (i.e. malign influence or coordinated inauthentic behaviour); and data on flows of advertising linked to COVID-19 disinformation (including policies to limit advertising placements related to disinformation). The EC is also asking platforms to intensify their cooperation with fact-checkers, and to actively offer access to their fact-checking programmes to organisations in EU Member States – as well as in its neighbourhood – for all languages.
