EU: Twitter Dropped Out of Disinformation Agreement

Twitter has quit the European Union's code of practice designed to reduce the spread of disinformation, an official said, adding that laws will be used to force Elon Musk's company to comply. "But obligations remain," Thierry Breton of the EU tweeted late Friday. "You can run but you can't hide." Other major social media platforms have promised to support the code, Politico.eu reports. And Breton, the internal markets commissioner, has publicly said he'll hold Musk personally responsible for following the EU's content rules if necessary. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment, per the BBC.

The rules call for the platforms to take such steps as tracking political advertising and putting an end to the monetization of disinformation, but the companies are free to decide which portions they will follow. The signees that have agreed to follow the code include Meta—owner of Facebook and Instagram—TikTok, Google, Microsoft, and Twitch. Come Aug. 25, the Digital Services Act will make compliance the law for companies with more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU—a group that includes Twitter. "Our teams will be ready for enforcement," Breton's tweet said. (More Twitter stories.)