UPDATED 12:14 EDT / FEBRUARY 15 2018

NEWS

EU tells Facebook and Twitter to protect users or face sanctions

The executive arm of the European Union is tired of waiting for social media companies to comply with the EU’s consumer protection rules, saying today that industry giants such as Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Google LLC could face sanctions if they do not shape up.

The European Commission met with the three companies in March 2017 to discuss their plans to meet the EU’s requirements, which included clarification of the sites’ terms and conditions, as well as the removal of unfair or illegal terms. It also wanted the companies to come up with solutions to address fake news and scams on their platforms.

According to the commission, each company published updates today to comply with the consumer protection rules, but so far none of them has met all of the requirements. Vera Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, said in a statement today that social media companies must do more — or else.

“As social media networks are used as advertising and commercial platforms, they must fully respect consumer rules,” said Jourová. “I am pleased that the enforcement of EU rules to protect consumers by national authorities is bearing fruit, as some companies are now making their platforms safer for consumers; however, it is unacceptable that this is still not complete and it is taking so much time. This confirms that we need a ‘New Deal for Consumers’: EU consumer rules should be respected and if companies don’t comply, they should face sanctions.”

Although Google+ has not met all of the EU’s requirements, the commission said Google is the only company with proposals that appear to address all of its issues fully. Google is also the only company that has set up deadlines to deal with the commission’s requests. Meanwhile, the commission said that “Facebook and, more significantly, Twitter, have only partially addressed important issues.” The commission noted that Facebook and Twitter have each set up an email address where authorities can notify them of infringements, but the two companies have not committed to addressing those complaints within any specific time frame.

The commission did not say how it might sanction the companies that do not meet its demands, but it plans to unveil the “New Deal for Consumers” in April. “This reform will propose to modernise the existing consumer law and ensure that they are properly enforced,” the commission said in its statement.

Photo: Ksayer1 via photopin cc

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