21/01/2025
FSG. Dpto. Igualdad y lucha contra la discriminación
The approval of the Code of Conduct+ and its integration into the European Digital Services Act strengthens the role of ‘Monitoring Reporters’, expert entities, such as Fundación Secretariado Gitano, in charge of monitoring social networks.
The European Digital Services Act (DSA) has integrated the voluntary code whereby platforms commit to the swift and effective removal of hate content.
The new Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online + (Code of Conduct +) is an improved version of the one adopted in 2016. It has been subscribed to by Dailymotion, Facebook, Instagram, Jeuxvideo.com, LinkedIn, Microsoft hosted consumer services, Snapchat, Rakuten Viber, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube. These are the platforms and search engines defined as “very large” (more than 45 million users per month), for which the DSA provides for a number of specific obligations.
The announcement comes two weeks after Meta (the company that owns Facebook, Instagram or Threads) put an end to the moderation of its content, joining the line taken by X. In a diametrically opposite sense, the compromise reached by the European Commission with the very large internet platforms and search engines ‘strengthen the way online platforms deal with content that EU and national laws define as illegal hate speech’, as assessed by the Commission.
The Code of Conduct+ maintains the voluntary nature of the 2016 version, but simplifies for adhering platforms the compliance with the periodic audits to which they are obliged to submit by the DSA, which generates a powerful incentive.
One of the key commitments made by the major platforms and search engines is to promptly examine reports of illegal content and remove them where appropriate.
The Code of Conduct+ maintains the figure of ‘Monitoring Reporters’, public entities and expert non-profit organizations whose role is to monitor networks and supervise how platforms deal with complaints. Fundación Secretariado Gitano is, since the approval of the Code of Conduct in 2016, one of the entities that collaborate from Spain with the European Commission, and one of those that reports the most cases, as antigypsyism is one of the most widespread hate speech in social networks in Europe.
The platforms adhering to the Code of Conduct+ commit, among other things, to review at least two thirds of the hate speech notifications sent to them by the Monitoring Reporters within 24 hours, to collaborate with expert entities in preventing hate content from going viral, to promote greater public awareness of the problem of hate speech on social networks, or to assume well-defined and specific transparency commitments, incorporating automatic detection tools.
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