European Commissioner Thierry Breton sent a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai reminding him of the corporate’s obligations below the EU’s Digital Companies Act (DSA) as a big on-line platform to maintain unlawful content material and disinformation from being shared on YouTube surrounding Israel’s struggle with Hamas.
“Following the terrorist assaults carried out by Hamas towards Israel, we’re seeing a surge of unlawful content material and disinformation being disseminated within the EU through sure platforms,” Breton wrote. He added that YouTube has an obligation to guard youngsters and teenagers within the EU from violent content material on the platform, should promptly take motion in response to notices from the EU, and have “proportionate and efficient mitigation measures in place” to sort out dangers from disinformation.
In a press release to The Verge, YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi mentioned, “following the devastating assaults in Israel and the escalated battle now underway in Israel and Gaza, we have now eliminated tens of 1000’s of dangerous movies and terminated tons of of channels. On the identical time, our techniques proceed to attach individuals with high-quality information and knowledge. Our groups are working across the clock to watch for dangerous footage and stay vigilant to take motion rapidly if wanted on all sorts of content material, together with Shorts and livestreams.”
In his letter, Breton additionally mentioned “a second space of urgent concern:” disinformation in elections. “I invite you to tell my workforce on the small print of the measures you have got taken to mitigate any deepfakes, additionally within the gentle of upcoming elections in Poland, The Netherlands, Lithuania, Belgium, Croatia, Romania and Austria, and the European Parliament elections,” Breton mentioned.
Breton requested that YouTube proactively report related info to the EU, however famous that his workforce will probably be sending requests on “quite a few points to ascertain DSA compliance.”