COVID-19: Vice-President Jourová discusses the issue of disinformation with online platforms

Yesterday, Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová met representatives of online platforms, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft, to discuss the spread of disinformation around the outbreak of COVID-19 virus. The participants, who are the signatories of the Code of Practice on Disinformation, confirmed that they discovered different types of disinformation or false information online and took a range of measures to address them.Vice-President Jourová welcomed the steps taken by the platforms and their cooperation with relevant international and Member States authorities.She also stressed that it is important that the platforms apply the same tools across all the Member States, in particular when it comes to referring to authoritative sources. Vice-President Věra Jourová said: “It is clear to me that we need to continue the monitoring and actions of the platforms. I also call on other platforms that are not signatories of the Code of Practice to deploy tools necessary for addressing the disinformation problem about the COVID-19 virus and invite them to join the Code. I invited the signatories to meet again in 4 weeks to continue our discussion and to share information in the meantime.” Overall, this fast reaction of the online platforms to disinformation about COVID-19 outbreak confirms that the tools developed in the Code of Practice are bearing fruit and that they helped the signatories to deploy quick and tested solutions. The same goes for the Rapid Alert System, which has been used to share knowledge among the Member States and EU institutions on disinformation on the COVID-19 coming from external sources. More information on the EU’s response to COVID-19 is available on a dedicated webpage.