Meta, EU rejects accusations of censorship. Warns: fact-checking stop “be effective” against disinformation

Brussels – While the EU grapples with the increasingly brazen meddling of X’s owner Elon Musk in the domestic politics of member states, the backstab you don’t expect. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, announced a farewell to fact-checking programs on Facebook and Instagram. He pointed the finger at the old continent, where “an increasing number of laws institutionalize censorship.” From Brussels, the annoyed response, “We categorically reject any accusation of censorship on our part.” However, the difficulty of harnessing large social platforms, according to the EU law on digital services, seems increasingly evident.

The shift of the Menlo Park-based hi-tech giant for now is limited to the United States. A wink to President-elect Donald Trump and his right-hand man Musk: “We will get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with X-like community notes, starting in the United States,” Zuckerberg explained in a video. Then, the overseas warning: “We will work with President Trump to fend off governments around the world that pick on U.S. companies and press for more censorship,” he said, explicitly accusing the European Union—a warning not only to the EU but also to Latin American governments and China.

Since 2016, Meta has had a content verification program, essentially entrusting independent organizations and newspapers accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network to evaluate—and, if necessary, label—apparently false or misleading posts. Labels that do not obscure the content but invite users to consult additional sources before accessing it. Conversely, the Community notes model introduced by Musk after his purchase of Twitter is based on engaging select groups of authorized users to add context notes or clarifications to controversial content.

A system, the latter, that is effective for unmasking scams or spam but raises serious questions when it comes to detecting false, misleading or dangerous news related to public or political discourse. Zuckerberg himself has admitted that this is the price to pay for “free speech” and that with the paradigm shift on Facebook and Instagram, more harmful content will be able to circulate. However, according to the American entrepreneur, “fact checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created,” ending up turning “a movement that was created to be more inclusive” into a tool “increasingly used to silence opinions and exclude people with different ideas.”

In any case, Meta’s patron has ruled out immediate plans for the EU and the UK, and the California-based company has made it clear that before implementing these changes on the Old Continent, it will ensure it complies with all its obligations. However, the announcement, accompanied by accusations of censorship aimed at Brussels, was enough to stir the EU capital, where the Digital Services Act (DSA), a law imposing several constraints on large digital platforms operating on European soil, was enacted last February.

These include a requirement to warn EU authorities of the launch of applications or new features with ”potential systemic risks” and to provide the European Commission with a risk assessment before proceeding. ”We do not impose the kind of content moderation policies that platforms must put in place,” Thomas Regnier, spokesman for the EU executive responsible for digital sovereignty, clarified today. If Meta “wants to rely completely on community notes, it can do so,” but the system “must be effective” in removing illegal content.

That is, it must differ from the one in force on X: On the former Twitter, there is, in fact, an ongoing investigation of the European Commission, opened in December 2023, for possible violations of DSA provisions in several areas of risk management. Among them is precisely the user-based content moderation policy.

Brussels has reiterated its red line in the event Zuckerberg decides in the near future to clash with EU law openly. Meanwhile, the Social Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament has already sounded the alarm bell, asking the European Commission to “ensure that tech giants like Meta do not undermine the regulatory framework of the EU, in light of the upcoming U.S. administration and potential policy changes brought about by the election of Donald Trump.” Sandro Gozi, a liberal MEP, also appealed to the European Commission’s “courage and determination” to “consolidate the European digital model, based on regulation that guarantees innovation without abandoning social cohesion and democracy itself.”

What are the obligations under the Digital Services Act

The European Digital Services Act has identified 19 dominant digital services in the online space—platforms or search engines with more than 45 million monthly active users —over which the European Commission has direct supervisory responsibility. These dominant players are two large search engines (VLOSEs, in jargon) – Bing and Google Search – and 17 large online platforms (VLOPs): social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest), e-commerce services (Alibaba, AliExpress, Amazon Store, Apple AppStore, Zalando), Google services (Google Play, Google Maps, and Google Shopping), and also Booking.com, Wikipedia, and YouTube. 

For large platforms, the DSA became effective as early as November 2022. In February 2024, its application extended to all digital actors. Obligations under the Digital Services Act stimulate accountability and protection for online users by mitigating “systemic risks” and applying “robust content moderation tools.” Users will have to be given “clear” information about why certain information is being recommended to them and will have the right to opt out of recommendation systems based on profiling (still prohibited for minors). At the same time, advertisements will not be allowed to be based on sensitive user data (ethnic origin, political views, sexual orientation). Regarding the protection of minors, platforms will have to redesign their systems to ensure a “high level” of privacy and security.

Also envisaged by the Digital Services Act are labels on all ads and information about who promotes them, with an obligation for platforms to process user reports on illegal content through a special mechanism. This will require measures to address risks and negative effects on freedom of expression and information through “clear” terms and conditions and compliance “in a diligent and non-arbitrary manner.” Evaluation will also be conducted externally and independently, including researchers’ access to data through a special mechanism. Archives of all ads served will have to be published on the platforms’ interface, as well as transparency reports on moderation decisions. For violations of the Regulation, Brussels has provided for fines of up to 6 per cent of global turnover.