June 16 (UPI) -- The European Commission on Thursday unveiled a new voluntary rulebook to limit the spread of disinformation online by tech companies.
Some three dozen companies, including Facebook parent Meta, Google, Twitter, TikTok and Microsoft, signed on to the disinformation code. Other signatories include fact-checkers, smaller platforms and ad companies.
By signing the code, the companies committed to make efforts to limit the spread of fake news and propaganda on their platforms. They will also share data with European Union member states.
"This new anti-disinformation code comes at a time when Russia is weaponizing disinformation as part of its military aggression against Ukraine, but also when we see attacks on democracy more broadly," said Věra Jourová, the EC's vice president for values and transparency.
"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. Users will also have better tools to flag disinformation and understand what they are seeing."
Included in the code are commitments to cut financial incentives for spreading disinformation; halt fake accounts, bots and malicious deep fake accounts spreading disinformation; give users better tools to recognize and flag disinformation; expand fact-checking; make political advertising more transparent; and setting up a transparency task force, among other efforts.
