No, the EU’s ‘Disinformation’ Code Has Not Become Mandatory

 It has been widely reported that the EU’s Code of Practice of Disinformation, a voluntary tech industry code created under the aegis of the European Commission, became mandatory on July 1st: namely, as consequence of its “integration” into the EU’s flagship regulatory legislation, the Digital Services Act (DSA). This is, however, incorrect and is based on a misunderstanding of what the code “integration” means. The Code of Practice is no more mandatory today than it was prior to July 1st.

Companies that are not signatories of the code, like X, are no more bound by its commitments than they were previously. Not being a piece of legislation and having never been considered, much less voted on by the European Parliament, the code could not be rendered binding by the European Commission by fiat. Rather what the European Commission and the European Digital Services Board (an auxiliary body created by the DSA) have done is to recognise signatories’ reporting under the code as a “benchmark” for compliance with the DSA....<<<Read More>>>...