- It will have to "significantly strengthen content moderation and protect freedom of expression," they warn.
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| Elon Musk, during the opening of a Tesla factory in Germany. |
Brussels warns Elon Musk that he needs more staff at Twitter to comply with European Union rules
The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, asked the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, on Wednesday that the company allocate "sufficient human resources" to comply with the new European Union rules on content control. "Twitter will have to implement policies that are transparent to users, significantly strengthen content moderation and protect freedom of expression, tackle disinformation resolutely, and limit targeted advertising. All of this requires sufficient AI (artificial intelligence) and human resources," he said. Breton told Musk during the conversation that the two had today by videoconference.
The Commission's warning came a few days after Twitter closed its office in Brussels as part of the layoffs being carried out by the magnate, which has raised doubts in the community capital about the social network's ability to comply with the new European standards. Breton and Musk agreed that the European Commission will be able to access Twitter's headquarters to carry out a stress test in early 2023 that "will allow" the company to comply with the requirements of the digital services law that has just entered into force. force "before the deadlines" provided for in the standard.
The digital services law forces large platforms such as Twitter, Google, or Amazon to quickly remove illegal content as long as they are aware of its existence and requires greater transparency in the design of the algorithms that determine what users see On the Internet. They will have to make annual reports to show that they are combating this type of content and both public authorities and academic researchers will have to have access to the design of the algorithms to verify that they comply with their mission.
The new regulations, which in practice will not begin to be applied until February 2024, will also prohibit Internet giants from showing personalized advertising to minors and will require companies to inform users why they recommend certain content based on their profile.
In this sense, they will have to give citizens the possibility that the information they see on the internet is not based on their profile. Along the same lines, the regulation prohibits the use of "dark patterns", tricks designed to deceive and manipulate consumers into making decisions that are probably contrary to their interests. If they fail to comply with these requirements, the European Commission may impose a fine of up to 6% of their annual worldwide turnover and may even prohibit them from accessing a single market.
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