European Union Denies Mark Zuckerberg's Accusations, Here's His Rebuttal

JAKARTA The European Commission firmly denies the Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's statement that the EU data law censors social media. In an official response on Wednesday, January 9, the European Commission stated that EU regulations only require large platforms to remove illegal content, not legitimate content.

Zuckerberg previously criticized the European Union by saying that increasingly applied regulations had "institutionalized sensors" and made innovation in the region difficult. This criticism comes at the same time as Meta's move to stop fact-checking programs in the United States and replace them with a "community note" system similar to the mechanism on platform X.

The European Commission, through its spokesperson, confirmed that the Digital Services Act does not force platforms to remove legitimate content, but only requires them to handle harmful content, such as harming children or EU democracy.

"We firmly reject all censorship allegations," a spokesman for the European Commission said.

Zuckerberg's proposed community record system allows users to write notes on posts that are considered misleading. This note will be published if it is considered beneficial by users from various points of view. However, the European Commission stated that in order to implement such a system in the European Union, the platform must conduct risk assessments and submit it to the Commission for evaluation.

"Any content moderation model the platform chooses must be effective. We will evaluate the effectiveness of content moderation policies implemented by platforms in the European Union," the spokesperson added.

The Commission also ensures that EU users will continue to benefit from the contribution of independent fact checking, including to content posted in the United States. This polemic again highlights the differences in approaches between the European Union and Meta in dealing with content moderation in the growing digital era.