YouTube and X did not act against disinformation before the EU vote, according to a report

Youtube and X often did not take measures against disinformation before June European electionsan analysis of more than 1,300 posts on platforms in 26 EU countries suggests.

The report, published on Tuesday by ‘Maldita.es’, a Spanish fact-checking organization Founded in 2018, it analyzes how five major online platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and Youtube) debunked disinformation across the continent ahead of the EU elections.

The analyzed publications were collected by fact-checking organizations that participated in the project’Elections24Check‘ during the four months leading up to the elections, including June 6, the first day of the EU vote.

According to data, The video platform YouTube was the one that obtained the worst results. It took no visible action on 75% of disinformation content, and in 80% of cases where it did take action, the content registered a generic information panel or labeled the source of the video as a media outlet. state, without offering any explanation as to why the content itself was false. Some of those videos reached 500,000 views, according to the report.

A YouTube spokesperson told Euronews that the company has “strict policies on harmful misinformationwhich our teams work day and night to rigorously enforce, including throughout the EU election period.”

“We have also connected voters across the EU with authoritative sources of news and information through our referral system,” the spokesperson added.

Platforms already subject to Commission investigations

In the same way, social media platform X took no visible action in 70% of cases and community explanatory notes were only visible in 15% of posts already flagged by independent European fact-checkers. Among the 20 denied messages most viral that did not receive any action from the platforms, 18 were hosted on X, with more than 1.5 million visits each.

In general, The platforms were the ones that took the least measures against disinformation messages directed at immigrants (57% of cases received no action), followed by misinformation about the integrity of the elections (56%). Both YouTube and TikTok had a 0% response rate for misinformation targeting immigrants.

The EU Digital Services Law forces large online platforms to take measures against disinformation, for example by labeling or removing content. In December 2023, the European Commission launched an investigationunder the DSA on X risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and researcher access to data.

On Instagram, owned by Meta, this figure is 70%, and on Facebook it is 88%. While most of Facebook’s actions regarding misinformation were fact checking labels who kept the original content online and focused on adding context (77%), TikTok’s most common action against this content was to eliminate it (32%).

Meta platforms are also the subject of an ongoing investigation under the DSA. The Commission said in April that it fears they will be vulnerable to Russian networks and who lack the appropriate tools to address misleading advertising and political content on their services.

ByteDancethe parent company of TikTok, is also being investigated: the Commission started researching in February the protection of minors, advertising transparency, access to data by researchers, as well as risk management of addictive designs and harmful content.

A Commission spokesperson said in a statement to Euronews that following its electoral guidelines to platforms under the DSA, as well as a stress test with large platforms, The companies “were very well prepared” and? “no major incidents occurred” during the election weekend.

This article has been updated with comments from the Commission and YouTube.