YouTube, X and Facebook target online hate speech: EU

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Meta’s Facebook, Elon Musk’s X, Google’s YouTube and other tech companies have agreed to do more to tackle online hate speech under an updated code of conduct that will now be integrated into EU technology rules, the European Commission said on Monday.

Other signatories to the voluntary code established in May 2016 are Dailymotion, Instagram, Jeuxvideo.com, LinkedIn, Microsoft’s hosted consumer service, Snapchat, Rakuten Viber, TikTok and Twitch.

EU technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen said: “In Europe there is no place for illegal hate, offline or online. I welcome the commitment of stakeholders to the enhanced Code of Conduct under the Digital Services Act (DSA).”

The DSA requires tech companies to do more to combat illegal and harmful content on their platforms. EU officials said compliance with the updated rule could affect regulators’ enforcement of the Act.

Under the revised code, companies commit to allowing nonprofits or public entities with expertise in illegal hate speech to monitor how they review hate speech notifications and assess hate speech. At least 2/3 of these notifications are received from them within 24 hours.

Companies will also take measures, such as using automated detection tools to reduce hate speech on their platforms and providing information about the role of recommendation systems and the scope of their actions. organic and algorithmic reach of illegal content before removing it.

They will present country-level data broken down by internal categories of hate speech such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)