Twitter is about to withdraw from one of European Union’s attempts to combat disinformation, as per a Politico report. According to two people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to speak about internal discussions between the company and the European Commission, the social networking giant owned by Elon Musk is expected to end its participation in the bloc’s code of practice on disinformation in the coming days.
The code of conduct is a voluntary regulation that was updated last year and makes it an obligation for firms like Twitter, Meta, and Alphabet to track political advertising, limit the monetisation of disinformation, and provide outsiders more access to these platforms.
While participation in the code is voluntary, it was supposed to help offset some of these companies’ duties under the separate, and required, Digital Services Act — new social media restrictions that entail fines of up to six per cent of a company’s annual sales.
According to an EC official, because the code of practice was optional, it was up to individual enterprises to decide whether or not to join. Twitter had not met its commitments under the code thus far, according to the spokeswoman.
A poop emoji was provided in response to an email submitted to Twitter for feedback, reported Politico.
Twitter is anticipated to withdraw as a so-called co-signatory of the code of practice early next week once Musk formally signs off, a source told Politico.
Since the billionaire fired half of Twitter’s employees last autumn, the company has significantly reduced its participation in Europe’s online content rulebook, and it was the only tech giant to fail to meet its transparency obligations under the code of practice’s quarterly reports.
Thierry Breton, Europe’s internal markets commissioner, has openly declared that he will personally hold Musk accountable for complying with the bloc’s content standards, notwithstanding Twitter’s choice to withdraw from the code of practice on misinformation.
Twitter’s head of engineering resigns a day after DeSantis launch fiasco
A day after Twitter’s technical glitches jeopardised Ron DeSantis’s US presidential bid launch, the platform’s head of engineering, Foad Dabiri, has resigned. It is still not known whether he was asked to leave by Elon Musk who faced severe criticism and embarrassment due to the glitches in DeSantis’ presidential bid announcement on Twitter, a first ever on any social media platform.
Foad Dabiri announced his exit on Twitter, “After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday. The combination of the fantastic community, the impact it has, and its limitless potential sets Twitter apart. So, here is my pseudo-obligatory gratitude thread: #LoveWhereYouWorked,” he wrote.
