Code of Practice on Disinformation

In 2018, the European Commission convened representatives of major technology firms and the online advertising industry to develop a voluntary framework of industry self-regulation to fight disinformation. In the aftermath of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Commission expressed concern that "mass online disinformation campaigns" were being "widely used by a range of domestic and foreign actors to sow distrust and create societal tensions." Moreover, the online platforms where these campaigns take place, according to the commission, had "failed to act proportionately, falling short of the challenge posed by disinformation and the manipulative use of platforms' infrastructures."