Europe gives TikTok 24 hours to respond about Israel-Hamas war misinformation, graphic content

European regulator Thierry Breton shared a stern letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Thursday, claiming his office has “indications” that the platform is being used to distribute disinformation and illegal content around the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Breton serves as the European commissioner for the internal market. He said TikTok must be “timely, diligent and objective” about removing misinformation, particularly since minors often turn to the platform as a source of news.

Breton issued similar letters to X owner Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week.

“First, given that your platform is extensively used by children and teenagers, you have a particular obligation to protect them from violent content depicting hostage taking and other graphic videos which are reportedly widely circulating on your platform, without appropriate safeguards,” Breton wrote in the letter.

  • Hyperreality@kbin.social
    502·
    1 year ago

    For those wondering how much this would cost, here’s a techcrunch article about similar threats to twitter:

    https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/06/elon-musk-twitter-germany-hate-speech-takedowns/amp/

    Key points:

    • The EU could fine twitter up to 6% of global annual turnover, which would amount to roughly 300 million.
    • But that’s just the EU. National governments can also issue fines. For example, NetzDG fines can be as high as 50 million per case(!!!), which means twitter’s facing a fine of up to 30 billion for the 600 cases they were dealing with in april. Almost certainly more since then.

    TLDR: stuff like this is potentially an existential threat for social media companies. Not just a cost of business and something they can ignore.