The inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States for the second time may represent a before and after in the technology sector. With Elon Musk in government and the prominent presence of all the great technological leaders at the ceremony, from Google’s Sundar Pichai to Apple’s Tim Cook, passing through Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, the influence of the sector in the beginning legislature is beyond any doubt.
And the first thing these tech leaders want is to eliminate the policies and laws that they feel have constrained them in recent years, and that includes fighting misinformation and fake news. Elon Musk himself was the first to declare war against fact-checkersjournalists and organizations dedicated to checking errors and ‘fake news’ published on social networks.
Mark Zuckerberg got on his bandwagon, making a 180-degree turn from everything he had defended in recent years and betting on ‘freedom’ and community notes; In other words, they are the users themselves decide what is true. Community notes have been praised on social network It is not a perfect system, but some users believe that it is better than leaving this work in the hands of professionals.
However, In Spain we will not see any of these changesat least for now; These businessmen seem to be living a double life, in which they change their minds depending on the political leader they are talking to. In the European Union, technology companies will not only continue with the same policy against fake news as before, but they have committed to investing and betting more on the same verification of information that they now consider malicious in the United States.
Both Meta and X, through Google, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn and other Internet platforms have signed a code of conduct to combat hate and illegal speech on the Internet. The interesting thing is that they have not been forced to do so: it was a voluntary measure and not a law, although it has been created by the European Commission as part of the new Digital Services Law (DSA) launched last year.
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The DSA implemented a series of requirements for platforms, especially the largest ones and those that manage a greater amount of European user data, considered ‘gatekeepers’. The new code of conduct is based on these measures and expands them, so the companies that have signed it have committed to taking more measures against disinformation and hate speech from which they are legally required.
However, it must be clarified that, being a voluntary measure, companies that fail to comply will not suffer any repercussions, and They can leave the agreement at any time; In fact, that’s just what Elon Musk did with