The European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services welcomed on Monday the integration of the new ‘Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online’ into the Digital Services Act (DSA) to guarantee the safety of users. The revised code aims to strengthen the fight against harmful content online according to EU law by implementing stricter oversight on major online platforms.

The revised Code of Conduct highlights recommendations for signatories, such as “presenting country-level data broken down by internal classification of hate speech”. It also proposes the creation of a network of “Monitoring Reporters”. These are public entities that will monitor how the signatories are reviewing the hate speech notices. Participants must commit to “review at least two-thirds of hate speech notices received from monitoring reporters within 24 hours”.

The code’s integration into the DSA aims to change the way users perceive security on social media. The DSA is considered the most important regulation to protect digital space as there is “no other legislative act in the world having this level of ambition to regulate social media”. It has the power to retain or request information from social media companies to ensure the integrity of users. The effectiveness of the code in reducing hate speech is showcased by a report from the commission that shows 28 percent of hateful content was removed in 2016 in comparison to 72 percent in 2019.

What the commission expects with the implementation of the new code is “taking into account in particular the specific challenges of tackling different types of illegal content and systemic risks” that come with the advancement of online tools under Article 45 of the DSA.

The original Code of Conduct was created in 2016 and signed by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube. Since the creation of the code, the majority of popular social networks have signed it. Online platforms demonstrate their commitment to mitigating the risk of harmful illegal content on their sites.

The next step for the commission is to evaluate the achievement of the Code of Conduct’s objectives. This will result from the continuous monitoring of platforms’ compliance with the existing rules.