The European Commission’s vice president of “Values and Transparency,” Věra Jourová criticized Twitter for leaving the social media code of conduct on disinformation, saying the platform has chosen “confrontation.”
“We believe this is a mistake of Twitter. Twitter has chosen the hard way. They chose confrontation,” Jourová told reporters on Monday.
“This was noticed very much in the Commission and I know the code is voluntary, but make no mistake, by leaving the code Twitter has attracted a lot of attention and its actions and compliance with EU law will be scrutinized vigorously and urgently.”
She noted that Twitter will be forced to comply with the EU’s censorship law, the Digital Services Act (DSA), which comes into effect on August 25.
“If Twitter wants to operate and make money in the European market, it will have to comply with the Digital Services Act,” Jourová said.
“A lot of people working at Twitter had collaborated with us…It’s sad. Twitter had very competent and determined [employees] who understood that there must be a certain responsibility, a reinforced responsibility on the part of platforms.”
Leaving the code also means Twitter does not have to participate in the new voluntary labeling system that flags content created by generative AI. The labeling system aims to combat “misinformation.”
“I said many times that we have the main task to protect the freedom of speech, but when it comes to AI production, I don’t see any right for the machines to have the freedom of speech,” Jourová said.
