TikTok joins EU's fight against fake news

By Stephen Warwick
published

TikTok logo
TikTok logo (Image credit: TikTok)

What you need to know

  • TikTok is joining the EU's fight against fake news.
  • CEO Kevin Mayer spoke with Thierry Breton on the matter.
  • Breton invited TikTok to join the EU's code of conduct, and it is reported that Mayer has accepted.

TikTok is to become the latest platform to join the EU's fight against fake news after CEO Kevin Mayer pledged to do more in a call with Thierry Breton.

Breton, the EU's digital chief, tweeted that he had a "good conversation" with Mayer stating:

Good conversation with Kevin Mayer, CEO of #TikTokEntertaining millions, TikTok has a role to play against #disinformation, especially in the fight (COVID-19)I invite major platforms to subscribe to the EU #CodeOfPractice to address the spread of fake news & improve transparency.

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As Reuters reports:

Breton in the last two months has held video conferences with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to promote his campaign against fake news and other issues.

In a news conference today, the EU's VP for values and transparency, Vera Jourova, revealed that TikTok would be joining the EU's voluntary code of conduct to help combat fake news. It joins Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Mozilla.

The news follows calls from the EU for companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter to report monthly to the EU on its fight against fake news. Concern has been raised over the impact of fake news and misinformation on the economy, as well as the health of democracy and indeed, public health. It emerged that German citizens' support for vaccination had fallen by 20% over the course of two months.

Stephen Warwick
Stephen Warwick
1 Comment
  • Reining in "fake news" is great in theory, but what will really happen is any tweet/post that doesn't align with the platform's corporate philosophy will be labeled "fake news" or "hate speech" and censored. So "free speech" will be allowed only if it doesn't counter corporate agenda. This is already happening with Twitter suspending accounts and YouTube demonetizing channels that attempt to discuss alternative perspectives or provide evidence contrary to mainstream opinion.