Europe taps Facebook, Google, Twitter on the shoulder. So about those promises to stamp out lies, bots, dodgy ads?

From theregister.co.uk

fake_news

Tasked with detailing their defenses against disinformation, GoogleFacebookMozillaTwitter, and ad biz trade groups on Tuesday turned in their homework to European Commission.

The EU regulatory body last month, after prior deliberation, announced an Action Plan to counter the disinformation poisoning political discourse and disrupt democratic norms on social ad platforms. As part of the plan, online services and ad-selling groups were asked to provide updates on their commitment to regulate themselves under the Code of Practice on Disinformation, which the platform companies agreed to in October 2018.

The goal of the code is to deny ad revenue to those spreading lies, to enable disclosure of political and issue advertising, to create clear policies on identities and bots, to close fake accounts, to provide information evaluation tools, and to provide researchers with data about disinformation while respecting privacy.

Read more…