Major online platforms including YouTube, its parent company Google and Microsoft are retreating from their fact-checking commitments, while Meta and China-owned TikTok’s support is highly uncertain, new reports revealed on Wednesday.

According to subscription forms published today to comply with the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation, international tech giants are confirming a trend set by Meta earlier this month that is poised to severely irk relations with EU policymakers.

The reporting exercise by online platforms, which is prescribed twice a year under the bloc’s 2022 code of practice, comes at a time of particularly heightened tensions between US social media companies and the European Commission – which were compounded by Meta’s decision to abandon its third-party fact-checking programme, starting with the US, and transition to a community notes model similar to X’s approach.

The company is widely expected to pursue the same shift in Europe, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg labelled EU laws a form of censorship on US Big Tech companies.

Just on Tuesday, EU Tech Commissioner Henna Virkkunen told MEPs she expected strong commitments from the large platforms. She also promised to double the number of EU officials working on the enforcement of the union’s Digital Services Act – the overarching framework for regulating media companies –  by the end of 2025. 

Withdrawal wave?

Google indicated today in its subscription form that it will withdraw from fact-checking commitments for YouTube, Google Ads and Search Engine, arguing it already has ”reasonable, proportionate and effective measures to mitigate systematic disinformation risks on [its] services.”

The company had already informed Commission officials of its decision last week. According to the letter, the firm has to date never used third-party fact-checking on either its Search Engine or its subsidiary platform YouTube. 

For its part, Microsoft justified its decision by stating fact-checking is not ”relevant” to Microsoft Bing Search and it is not ”proportionate to the risk profile” of Linkedin.

Meanwhile, citing Zuckerberg’s recent announcement, Meta said that, while it will continue to abide by fact-checking commitments for the time being, compliance will be conditional on the imminent changes in its fact-checking policy, which will also hinge on Commission’s response on the risk assessment the company sent the EU executive sent earlier this month.

TikTok said it will stay signed up to the commitments, ”provided that other signatories using similar services do likewise.”

A source told Euractiv that all signatories need to sign up for similar fact-checking commitments to maintain a level-playing field. They added that if all major platforms backtrack on fact-checking, the Commission would need to reconsider fact-checking commitments under the Code.

Civil society organisations that are signatories to this Code are criticising this move, fearing it will significantly undermine support for independent fact-checkers and warning it reflects a growing trend of criticising fact-checking as a tool against misinformation, says Daniela Alvarado Rincón from Defend Democracy International. 

A spokesperson from TikTok said that the platform remains a signatory to the Code of Practice and ”continues to support the Code’s broader objectives,” adding the company will report regularly on [its] progress”.

X dropped out of the 2022 Code of Practice after it was taken over by tech billionaire Elon Musk. It currently uses a community notes model for its fact-checking.

The 2022 code of practice remains self-regulatory for the signatories but its legal status will change in July after it is integrated into the DSA as a binding code of conduct.

[AB]