May 7, 2018

The messaging app Snapchat is joining the EU code of conduct against online hate speech, the European Commission said on Monday.

Snapchat is the seventh major social media platform to join the voluntary initiative aimed at cracking down on hate speech, which includes a commitment to handle notifications of offensive online activity within 24 hours.

The code of conduct was launched with the participation of Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube in May 2016.

Google+ and Instagram have also joined since.

“I welcome Snapchat’s commitment to tackle illegal online content,’’ said European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova.

“The growing number of participants proves that the EU Code of Conduct is an efficient way to make the internet a safer place.’’

According to the latest progress report on the implementation of the code of conduct, companies removed 70 per cent of illegal hate speech they were notified about, and in 81 per cent of the cases the removal happened within 24 hours.

NAN reports  that the EU in September 2017, the EU‘s executive body began to pressure social media firms to get better at removing illegal content from their platforms before it has a chance to spread further online.

The EU put out a set of “guidelines and principles” which it said were aimed at pushing tech firms to be more pro-active about takedowns of illegal content, and specifically urging them to build tools to automate flagging and re-uploading of such content.

But the measures were quickly criticised for being overly vague and posing a risk to freedom of expression online.