Big Techs will have to deal with deepfakes or risk EU fines

Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies will have to take steps to combat “deepfakes” and fake accounts on their platforms at risk of being penalized with hefty fines by the European Union, sources said on Monday.

The European Commission will publish an update to the code of conduct on disinformation on Thursday as part of a campaign to combat the publication of lies on social media, the sources said.

Introduced in 2018, the code is voluntary and will be part of a co-regulation scheme, with responsibilities shared between authorities and their signatories.

The update will bring more examples of manipulation behavior, such as “deepfakes” and fake accounts, that code signers will have to fight, the sources said.

Deepfakes are hyperrealistic fakes of images and sounds created by computational techniques and that have worried global authorities especially when they are used in a political context.

The code will be linked to stricter new EU rules brought together in the “Digital Services Act” passed by the 27 EU countries this year.

That means companies that fail to meet their obligations under the code could face fines of up to 6% of global revenue, the sources said.

“From Brexit to the Russian war against Ukraine, over the last few years, well-known social networks have allowed the spread of disinformation and destabilization strategies and even made money from it. Disinformation cannot remain a source of revenue,” said EU Industry Secretary Thierry Breton, who is leading the bloc’s campaign against publishing lies on the internet.

“The best antidote is to cut funding. Platforms can no longer receive a single euro from the spread of misinformation. Demonetization is an important part of the code of practice against disinformation,” he said.