http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2025/01/19/google-defies-eus-fact-checking-requirements-for-search-and-youtube/
By Lucas Nolan
Breitbart
January 19, 2025
Google has informed the European Union that it will not integrate work from “fact-checking” organizations into its Search and YouTube platforms, as the EU prepares to expand its disinformation laws.
The Verge reports that Google has notified the European Union that it will not comply with the bloc’s upcoming requirements to integrate “fact checking” into its Search and YouTube services. The tech giant’s decision comes as the EU is in the process of formalizing its voluntary disinformation commitments into law under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Google had previously signed the EU’s set of voluntary commitments in 2022, which aimed to reduce the impact of online disinformation. However, in a letter addressed to the European Commission’s content and technology czar Renate Nikolay, Google’s global affairs president Kent Walker stated that the fact-checking requirement “simply isn’t appropriate or effective for our services.” Furthermore, Google plans to withdraw from all fact-checking commitments in the Code before the rules become law in the DSA Code of Conduct.
The EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation currently requires signatories to collaborate with fact-checkers in all EU countries, make their work accessible to users in all EU languages, and reduce financial incentives for spreading disinformation on their platforms. The code also mandates companies to simplify the process for users to recognize, understand, and flag disinformation, as well as label political ads and analyze fake accounts, bots, and malicious deep fakes that spread disinformation. However, these commitments are not legally binding at present.
Google’s objection to the fact-checking requirements is not entirely unexpected, as the company has not included fact-checking as part of its content moderation practices thus far. In its agreement with the EU, Google had stated that “Search and YouTube will endeavor to reach agreements with fact checking organizations in line with this measure, but services will not have complete control over this process.”
While 40 online platforms have signed the code, including Microsoft, TikTok, Twitch, and Meta, the level of commitment to fulfilling the requirements has been inconsistent. Twitter (now X) initially signed the code but withdrew after Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform. The European Fact-Checking Standards Network has also noted that many of the other digital platforms that signed the voluntary disinformation code have been lax in fulfilling their commitments.
The EU is currently in discussions with signatories to determine which commitments will be formalized into official rules under the DSA. It remains unclear whether all of the code’s requirements will be included in the final legislation. The European Commission has yet to announce when the code will officially become law, having previously stated that it is expected to come into force by January 2025 “at the earliest.”
Read more at the Verge here.
"Disinformation" for the Fascist European Establishment is anything that is truthful about, inconvenient for, and/or embarrassing to the State. The European Commission's rules are nothing but attempts at pure, autocratic censorship meant to inhibit and destroy free speech. Adolph Hitler and Joseph Goebbels would be proud of their progeny.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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