The American platform Twitch took another step against online hate by joining the European Union’s code of conduct on Monday, which aims to combat illegal hate speech online.
The European Commission, announced on Monday, of which it is the 12th signatory, has announced that the Twitch platform has become the 12th signatory to its online code of conduct.
“The European Commission welcomes the decision of Twitch, an interactive live video streaming service, to join the EU code of conduct,” the EU executive said in a statement.
This code, launched in 2016, is intended to combat hate messages targeting people because of their origin, religion or sexual orientation. Its signatories are: Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Dailymotion, Jeuxvideo.com, TikTok, and LinkedIn, and Viber.
“Young people are particularly vulnerable to hate and abuse and we owe it to them to make the internet a safer space for them,” said Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova .
European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders welcomed a “step in the right direction”, and called on other companies to sign the code. “The more of us who commit to this goal, the greater the impact will be,” he said.
Twitch, owned by Amazon, announced last December the establishment of a system to detect malicious users, after a wave of racist and homophobic harassment.
The EU code of conduct against online hate, launched in 2016, now has 12 signatories: in addition to Twitch, it includes Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Dailymotion, Jeuxvideo.com, TikTok, and LinkedIn , and since last May, the messaging application Viber, belonging to the Japanese group Rakuten.
The signatories undertake to assess within 24 hours the majority of content reported by users as hate speech online, and to remove it if necessary, in accordance with national and European legislation.
The Commission highlighted the “positive results” of this code, indicating that on average, tech companies assessed 81% of flagged content within 24 hours, and removed 62.5% of content deemed to be hate speech. line.
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