Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and other tech and advertising companies have committed to implementing new measures and investing in new technologies to fight the spread of hoax news online in Europe, according to a draft of the agreement.
The group, an ad-hoc alliance that includes Mozilla Corp. and advertising business organizations, is set to present its code of conduct on Wednesday to the European Commission, the bloc's executive body, some of the companies said. The EU in April called on web platforms and social media firms to present a plan on how to curtail misinformation online or face possible regulation if they fail to do so.
The proposal follows months of pressure from lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe against tech companies over whether Russians had spread disinformation across the platforms to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the U.K.'s Brexit vote. EU officials are hoping to prevent or minimize a repeat of the problem ahead of EU elections next spring. Tech companies, which have come under fire by conservatives in the U.S. for bias, say they are trying to tackle the problem in a way that doesn't restrict freedom of expression.