Twitter withdraws from EU’s ‘Code of Practice on Disinformation’

Elon Musk’s social media platform Twitter has withdrawn from the European Union’s voluntary ‘’Code of Practice on Disinformation’’. 

The voluntary agreement, which Twitter signed back in 2018, aims to fight spammers and scammers in addition to preventing the spread of online disinformation.

According to the EU’s website, the Code of Practice on Disinformation is ‘’a first-of-its kind tool through which relevant players in the industry agreed – for the first time in 2018 – on self-regulatory standards to fight disinformation.’’

While the agreement is voluntary, all large digital platforms are expected to comply with it since it is one of the obligations of the Digital Services Act that will be enforced as of August 25.

As reported by TechCrunch, Twitter’s withdrawal news was announced by Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, on his Twitter account last Friday. ‘’You can run but you can’t hide,’’ Breton wrote in the tweet.

If Twitter doesn’t comply with the obligation, it could face EU fines of up to 10% of its global annual revenue, and may even have to stop its operations in the region.