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Social media giants operating in Europe have signed on to a Code of Conduct on countering “illegal hate speech online,” the European Commission has today said.
The Commission welcomed the integration of the revised ‘Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online +’ into the framework of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The code encourages participatory bodies to establish their own codes of conduct for tackling “illegal hate speech”.
Both Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) and Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Instagram have signed on to the code, along with other widely-used platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube.
“The Code of conduct+ will strengthen the way online platforms deal with content that EU and national laws define as illegal hate speech,” a press release from the Commission said.
“The integrated Code of conduct will facilitate compliance with and the effective enforcement of the DSA when it comes to risks of dissemination of illegal content on their services.”
Signatories of the Code commit to allowing a network of ‘Monitoring Reporters’, described as “not-for-profit or public entities with expertise on illegal hate speech”, to monitor how the organisations are reviewing hate speech notices.
Monitoring reporters may include entities designated as ‘Trusted Flaggers’ under the DSA.
Along with this, the signatories are to strive to review at least two thirds of hate speech notices received from those monitoring reporters within 24 hours.
They are also to “raise, in cooperation with civil society organisations, users’ awareness about illegal hate speech and the procedures to flag illegal content online”.
Ireland’s EU Commissioner, Michael McGrath said of the new code that “hatred and polarisation are threats to EU values and fundamental rights and undermine the stability of our democracies”.
“The internet is amplifying the negative effects of hate speech. I intend to work tirelessly to counter hate speech and hate crime in the EU. We trust this Code of conduct+ will do its part in ensuring a robust response. We stand, altogether, for a Europe united against hatred.”
Meanwhile, his counterpart, tech commissioner Henna Virkunnen said that in Europe “there is no place for illegal hate, either offline or online”.
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