According to these sources, the social network in the hands of Elon Musk has informed the European Commission of its intentions but has not yet formally notified the decision.
Launched in 2018, this European code of practice brings together some thirty signatories, giants such as Meta, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, TikTok, but also smaller platforms, as well as advertising professionals, fact-checkers and NGOs.
The signatories themselves participated in the drafting of the text, which contains about forty commitments aimed in particular at better cooperating with fact-checkers and depriving sites disseminating fake news of advertising.
Since buying Twitter six months ago, billionaire Elon Musk has relaxed moderation of problematic content, and appears to have amplified the voices of notorious propagators of misinformation on the platform.
Twitter has indicated that it prefers to use its own community of Internet users rather than fact-checkers, a European source said. Its reporting on disinformation under the Code of Practice was very inadequate.
"If (Elon Musk) is not serious about the code, it may be better that he leaves it," said an official at the European Commission, contacted by AFP. Adherence to the code remains voluntary, however "we cannot avoid the DSA", the new law on digital services that came into force in mid-November in the EU, he added.
The DSA forces platforms to make efforts to "reduce the risks" of disinformation and provides for fines of up to 6% of their global turnover.
At the end of April, the vice-president of the European Commission in charge of transparency, Vera Jourova, said she felt "more and more uncomfortable on Twitter" because of Russian propaganda on this platform.
She was also concerned that Twitter would lack staff dedicated to fighting disinformation, after the massive layoffs made by Mr. Musk.
When contacted, the firm's press service responded with an automatically generated email with a crotte-shaped emoji.
© 2023 AFP