‘Bye, bye birdie’: EU bids farewell to Twitter as company pulls out of code to fight disinformation

Vera Jourova, the European Commission’s Vice-President for Values and Transparency, bashed Twitter’s latest decision to leave the EU’s anti-disinformation code as “irresponsible” at a time when Russia’s disinformation is extremely dangerous.

“Bye, bye birdie,” Jourova tweeted on Saturday. “Twitter has chosen a hard way to comply with our digital laws,” she added.

“Russia’s disinformation is dangerous and it is irresponsible to leave [the] EU's anti-disinformation Code”.

Dozens of tech firms have voluntarily signed up to the EU’s anti-disinformation code revamped last year, including Meta (with Instagram and Facebook), TikTok, Google, Microsoft and Twitch.

Despite the fact that Twitter’s withdrawal could appear to be a major setback in the fight against disinformation and fake news in the EU, Jourova said that “the Code remains strong, sets high standards and is at the heart of our efforts to address disinformation”.

The EU official added that she will meet with signatories of the code in June, “so we can step up our actions, especially ahead of the elections”.

Twitter’s decision to pull out of the EU’s voluntary code to fight the spread of disinformation and fake news in the bloc was announced by Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, on Twitter on Friday.

Twitter has not yet commented on the decision nor has it confirmed it.

Even without the anti-disinformation code, Breton said he will hold Twitter accountable to comply with the bloc’s content rules. “Obligations remain,” he said, specifying that the social media platform will still have to comply with EU laws. “You can run but you can’t hide”.

Fighting disinformation will become a legal obligation in the EU as of August 25, when platforms with more than 45