MAJOR INTERNET COMPANIES are not doing enough to combat misinformation on their platforms, according the CoP Monitor Report co-authored by the EDMO Ireland hub in DCU’s Institute for Future Media Democracy and Society.

The report is an international collaboration of 9 academics who conducted a systematic analysis of all information provided by Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), in the first self-reports submitted under the Strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation.

According to the report’s findings, 55% of “qualitative information requests” across the signatories were either “missing or incomplete due to irrelevant or unclear answers”.

“That figure jumps to 64% for quantitative information requests where Signatories often did not provide precise data or no data at all,” according to a statement accompanying the report.

Only the ‘Political Advertising’ section of the Code scored a grade of “adequate” in the report. Commitments relating to ‘Empowering Researchers’ and ‘Empowering the Fact-checking Community’ were rated “particularly poorly”.

Lead author, Dr Kirsty Park said:

“The Code is really all about transparency. It’s easy for platforms to say that they take these issues seriously, but what the Code asks them to do is to show us evidence that this is true.

“While these reports show great progress and we can see platforms are taking action, there are still many instances where requested data is missing or answers are irrelevant, and that simply isn’t acceptable when you are talking about some of the biggest companies in the world.

“They have the resources and a societal responsibility to do better, as well as new legal obligations under the Digital Services Act.”

The Code, which was redeveloped in 2022, contains 44 commitments covering
topics such as demonetising disinformation in online advertising, labelling political advertising, combatting deepfakes or AI manipulated content and empowering users, researchers and fact-checkers.

X, formerly known as Twitter, withdrew from the Code this year, provoking a strong reaction from the European Commission with Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton warning that “You can run but you can’t hide”.

X had already scored poorly while still nominally committed to the Code. The company left most of its last report blank.