Wars are the most sensitive times when misinformation can hurt the most. Sadly our social media platforms have become the biggest breeding grounds for misinformation. This misinformation needs to be taken care of as it can always become a trigger to escalate situations.
As we all know a conflict is going on between Israel and Hamas. In the wake of that, Thierry Breton, European Commissioner, warned Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. He said on Wednesday that Zuckerberg will have to remove all pro-Hamas content from their website. It was further added that if Meta fails to do so, it will be going against the new EU moderation regulations.
Breton wrote a letter to Zuckerberg about all of this and even asked him to be very vigilant. They want Meta to remove all the content that is pro-Hamas and could promote hate speech. As per Breton, despite the EU moderation guidelines, they have noticed “a surge of illegal content and disinformation being disseminated in the EU”. This puts the beloved social media sites in breach of the Digital Services Act.
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The Digital Service Act or the DSA is a strict and controversial bill that’s under effect now. According to this act, if tech companies such as Facebook, Meta, Google, etc do not prevent content that is illegal in India, they will have to pay a hefty fine which could be 6% of their annual revenue.
European Commissioner Breton said in the letter to Zuckerberg, “I urgently invite you to ensure that your systems are effective”. “Needless to say, I also expect you to be in contact with the relevant law enforcement authorities and Europol, and ensure that you respond promptly to any requests.”
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Andy Stone, Meta spokesperson said to the Verge, “Our teams are working around the clock to keep our platforms safe, take action on content that violates our policies or local law, and coordinate with third-party fact-checkers in the region to limit the spread of misinformation. We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.”
He even gave Meta a deadline of the next 24 hours. Do you think it is easy to remove so much negative content from social media websites?
