Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, spoke out in line with an earlier audit of the social network by the European Commission ahead of the September entry into force of the new stricter rules for digital platforms.
The announcement was made this Sunday by the European Commissioner, Thierry Breton, responsible for the internal market and digital platforms in the European Union, as part of a public intervention, also pledging to announce next week the names of the “so – so-called systemic platforms” which will be targeted in particular by the new European legislation aimed at eliminating zones without jurisdiction on the Internet.
According to Breton, there are “between 19 and 25” of these platforms, which, according to the European Commissioner, bring together more than 45 million users on the European continent, adding that the number represents 10% of the population in the European Union and welcome a diploma that “individuals’ respect online will fundamentally change”.
The platforms in question “will have to radically change how they operate very quickly if they want to continue operating in Europe,” said Breton.
“We will check what happens with their algorithms (…), how many moderators they have, whether they are good at each of the Union’s languages,” said the European Commissioner.
Breton said he had proposed large platforms “before the month of September”, when the legislation will apply to them, to carry out “blank audits”, i.e. preliminary audits, with no consequences in the event of a breach.
“Imagine if Elon Musk accepted” such an audition on Twitter, added Breton, stating that he plans to travel to California, in the US, to participate in this audit himself.
The European Commission is in the process of equipping itself with a team of 100 experts highly specialized in digital platforms to conduct these audits, Breton revealed.
The Digital Platforms Act imposes a long list of rules on social networks, commercial platforms and search engines.
These rules include the obligation to act immediately to remove any illegal content that comes to the knowledge of the platform, or the obligation to inform the judicial authorities if they suspect a serious crime.
The rules also include prohibitions, such as exploiting sensitive user data (gender, political orientation, religion) for targeted advertising, as well as transparency obligations, such as the publication of key parameters used by recommendation systems.
Source: DN
