Podcast exclusive: Jourová presses Big Tech bosses to raise their game on content moderation amid Israel-Hamas war

Podcast exclusive: EU’s Jourová presses Big Tech bosses to raise their game on content moderation amid Israel-Hamas war

Věra Jourová is a Czech politician and lawyer who has been European Commissioner for Values and Transparency since 2019. More recently, she has added digital duties after the EU’s digital commissioner Margethe Vestager took a leave of absence. Jourová is now responsible for the enforcement of the Digital Services Act, the EU’s landmark content-moderation legislation. The tragic events unfolding in the Middle East and social-media platforms’ role in spreading disinformation has been the first test for the DSA. Jourová is also focused on the AI Act, another initiative that has caught global attention. In an extended conversation with MLex reporters Matthew Newman and Sam Clark, Jourová goes over how she handles meetings with some of the biggest leaders of Silicon Valley to ensure they follow the EU’s new rules.

Tune in to the podcast below, or continue scrolling for a related article.

21 November 2023
By Matthew Newman and Sam Clark

Věra Jourová, the European Commission’s vice president for transparency and values, has more reasons to meet with the titans of Silicon Valley these days — and she doesn’t hold back from asking tough questions.

The Czech politician was catapulted into a new role overseeing tech companies in September when EU digital and competition chief Margrethe Vestager went on unpaid leave to pitch for the job of European Investment Bank president.

Jourová is now responsible for Vestager’s digital files, taking on the EU’s most high-profile legislation affecting Big Tech, including the Artificial Intelligence Act and the Digital Services Act.

In addition to the commission’s missives to the leaders of Big Tech companies on complying with the DSA's content moderation rules, Jourová said meeting them in person is the best way to get direct answers about how their platforms are getting rid of hate speech and content that celebrates or glorifies terrorism.

“When I can look into the eyes of the big platforms’ bosses, I can have some feeling. For instance, the feeling whether these concrete people want to be abused for amplification and distribution of crime,” Jourová said during a recent exclusive interview with MLex in Brussels.

“It is a crime, according to our legislation. Hatred and antisemitism: It’s a crime. I want to look into the eyes of the bosses and receive answers from them,” she said. “I asked them an easy question: What are you doing? Are you watching what’s happening, that the antisemitism, which is seen online, in your networks, is spilling over to real life?” she said.

The Jewish population in France, Europe’s largest, has been subjected to a wave of more than 1,500 acts and comments shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, according to the French government.

Jourová is no stranger to Big Tech companies. During a five-year term as justice commissioner, she helped steer the General Data Protection Regulation into law in 2016. As values commissioner, she has also been leading the EU executive’s efforts to compel digital platforms to fight hate speech and disinformation through voluntary codes of conduct.

Her new responsibilities come at a sensitive time for tech companies. Israel’s war against Hamas is putting the EU’s content moderation rules to an early test, a senior commission official said last week.

Compliance test

Meta Platforms, Google’s YouTube and ByteDance’s TikTok have been designated as “very large online platforms,” or VLOPs, under the DSA. There are currently 17 of them — plus two “very large online search engines” — defined as services with more than 45 million EU users. They have stricter obligations under the law than smaller services and are subject to direct enforcement by the commission.

Their additional obligations came into force on Aug. 25, while the full rules of the DSA won't start applying for all companies until next February.

The DSA requires VLOPs to mitigate “systemic risks,” including the spread of illegal content and “actual or foreseeable negative effects on civic discourse and electoral processes.” Failure to comply can lead to fines of up to 6 percent of a company’s global revenue.

The commission has asked platforms such as YouTube, Meta, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) how they are responding to illegal hate speech, antisemitic attacks and protecting minors from violent images. Especially after a wave of violent images and disinformation flooded social media platforms following Hamas’ attacks.

Based on the replies, the commission could open formal enforcement proceedings eventually leading to fines.

Directly after a surge of disinformation and illegal content on social media platforms, Thierry Breton, the EU’s industry commissioner, sent letters to the CEOs of large platforms, warning them that they must do more to comply with the DSA.

The commission followed up with formal requests to Amazon, Meta, Snap, YouTube and TikTok for information on details of their compliance with the DSA.

Jourová met with the bosses of YouTube, Meta, TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, telling them that they must do more to tackle hate speech and to protect children on their platforms after the onset of conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“We will always need the platforms to go the extra mile and to maybe show some social responsibility,” she said. It was clear that the current enforcement of the DSA “cannot bear fruit quickly,” she added.

Large online platforms need to act now, “not after they are pushed by the enforcers to do something” in several months," she said. “We need urgent reaction from the platforms. That's why now we are combining this enforcement procedure and these interviews.”

Amazon, TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest have each removed millions of items of content from their services since the EU’s content moderation law came into force, they have disclosed. Jourová said the platforms provided “quantitative evidence” about how they are complying with the DSA, but she wants them to go further.

TikTok, popular among younger users, was asked about how the platform is protecting children, and YouTube was queried on how it’s removing “horrible pictures” of killings, she said.

Jourová said she asked an executive of X about whether the company will consider rejoining the code of practice on disinformation, which it left earlier this year. She said she was told it would consider that.

Regarding X, a commission pilot program in three EU countries found that “disinformation actors were found to have significantly more followers than their non-disinformation counterparts.”

Online platforms’ efforts to limit the “reach and influence” of Russian disinformation following the Russian invasion of Ukraine have been unsuccessful.

The voluntary code of practice on disinformation is expected to serve as the precursor to an enforceable “code of conduct” under the DSA, adherence to it would count towards platforms’ ability to demonstrate they’re effectively mitigating risks.

“We cannot continue just with the code, because it did not cover the whole digital scene. And it was just a voluntary agreement,” Jourová said.

“I would say that the code of conduct against hate speech has been replaced more or less by the Digital Services Act, the code of practice against disinformation, which is not necessarily illegal content, and we have to take different approaches to disinformation,” she said. "We don't want to kill the chance of people to say opinions."

For access to our Data Privacy & Security news and analysis in real time, start your free trial today.