EU to test Facebook, X and others on disinformation ahead of German election

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission has asked social media giants including Facebook, TikTok and X to take part in a test to see whether they are doing enough to counter disinformation in the run-up to next month’s German election, an EU spokesperson said on Friday.

Microsoft, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google, Snap, Facebook-owner Meta and X have been asked to take part in the Jan. 31 “stress test” to check they have enough safeguards in place to mitigate risks on their platforms, as required by the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

“The stress test is really going through potential scenarios where DSA comes into play and to check with platforms how they would react to these specific scenarios,” EU spokesperson Thomas Regnier told a press briefing.

A TikTok spokesperson said it had received the invitation and would attend the Jan. 31 meeting.

Representatives for Meta, Snap, Google-owner Alphabet, X, Microsoft and LinkedIn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A senior European Commission official said senior compliance officers at the companies had been invited to participate, along with other specialists responsible for implementing the DSA.

The test is the first held for a national election, Regnier said, after one was held before the European Parliament elections last year.

“This was very successful … so there is a will that this is done together with the German authorities,” he said.

The test will be held behind closed doors, he added.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer. Additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Sarah Marsh. Editing by Kevin Liffey and Mark Potter)