EU to “Stress-Test” Social Media Companies on Disinformation
30 January 2025
The European Union (EU) is preparing to perform a disinformation “stress test” on social media companies ahead of Germany’s upcoming elections. European Commission officials will quiz the platforms on their response to a series of hypothetical scenarios on January 31, as reported by news outlets.
According to a commission spokesperson, the companies invited include X, Meta Platforms Inc. (owners of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and more), Snap Inc. (Snapchat), Google, TikTok, and Microsoft Corp. (officials made specific mentions of Microsoft’s subsidiary, LinkedIn).
Besides the quiz, commission officials will also perform a more general investigation of the companies’ compliance with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The test will be the first of its kind for a national election.
This test comes ahead of Germany’s federal elections on February 23, 2025, where over 600 members of Germany’s parliament will be elected. Germany has both the largest population and GDP of all EU countries, making the upcoming election a top priority for the bloc.
“The stress test is really going through potential scenarios where DSA comes into play, and to check with platforms how they would react,” said Thomas Reigner, a commission spokesperson, to Bloomberg. The commission published a series of guidelines under the DSA for large online platforms to mitigate risks that might impact election outcomes in March of last year.
In December 2024, presidential elections in Romania, another EU member, were annulled after intelligence reports showed foreign actors interfered by spreading election disinformation on TikTok and other social media platforms. This month, the EU announced it would be demanding a look into X’s recommendation algorithms in a DSA compliance investigation after X’s CEO Elon Musk publicly endorsed a German far-right candidate.
Meta and TikTok are also under investigation for suspected breach of the DSA. If guilty, the EU could fine these companies up to 6% of their yearly global sales.
The EU’s investigations into online disinformation come at a time when several companies are scaling back their efforts to fight it. Earlier this month, Meta announced it would end its fact-checking program to allow “free expression.”
