Twitter now X has largest ratio of misinformation posts: EU report

X (formerly Twitter) has the largest ratio of misinformation posts of all major social media platforms, according to a new report by the European Union. The report assessed the efforts of tech companies to crack down on disinformation on their platforms over the last six months. It found that X has the worst ratio of disinformation/misinformation posts.

This criticism comes as part of an assessment of various online platforms’ efforts to combat disinformation under the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation, which is linked to the legally binding Digital Services Act (DSA).

The Anti-Disinformation Code has 44 signatories, including major platforms like Facebook, Google, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn, as well as the advertising industry and civil society.
Vera Jourova, commissioner of European Commission for Values and Transparency, in her speech highlighted that the context of disinformation is critical, especially in light of events like the Russian war in Ukraine and upcoming EU elections. The commission expects signatories to take disinformation risks seriously, especially in the run-up to elections, and to align their actions with the Digital Services Act (DSA).

She noted that X had the largest ratio of misinformation and disinformation posts during a pilot phase of testing new methodology developed by Code signatories.

X is no longer a signatory as it exited the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation after policy shifts following Elon Musk’s takeover. The new policies were accused of boosting Kremlin propaganda and criticised for patchy reporting.

The report highlights that X, under Musk’s ownership, removed check marks denoting state-run or government-affiliated media accounts on the platform. This led to an increase in the spread of propaganda on X, particularly from Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state media English-language accounts, which saw a significant increase in the likes and shares.

The pilot also showed that accounts spreading disinformation actors had significantly more followers than the non-disinformation spreading users and tend to have joined the platform more recently than non-disinformation users.

According to the report, Google’s YouTube between January and April 2023 removed more than 400 channels involved in coordinated influence operations linked to the Russian-state sponsored Internet Research Agency (IRA). Google also removed ads from almost 300 sites linked to state-funded propaganda sites.

Meta expanded its fact-checking partnerships to 26 partners covering 22 languages in the EU including Czech and Slovak.

TikTok’s fact-checked 832 videos related to the war of which it removed 211 videos. Microsoft highlights that Bing Search has either promoted information or downgraded questionable information in relation to almost 800 thousand search queries related to the crisis.