Google, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok aren鈥檛 doing enough under EU laws to fight disinformation, a new report found. The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) assessed the period from January to June 2024 on how these tech giants met the eight core commitments of the EU鈥檚 Code of Practice on Disinformation, a voluntary document signed in 2018 that will be integrated into the Digital Services Act (DSA) on July 1st. The group found there is a 鈥渃lear gap鈥 between the platforms’ commitments under the code of practice and the verifiable evidence of their implementation. 鈥淭he assessment identifies consistent gaps in transparency, independent oversight and measurable outcomes across all commitments,鈥 the report reads, adding that the code 鈥渞isks remaining performative鈥 if the companies do not step up. The pledges in the code include avoiding advertisements next to disinformation, efficiently labelling misleading or fake information, and providing researchers with data about their platforms.Efforts to fight disinformation 鈥榬emain very limited鈥橳he study looked at whether the platforms鈥 transparency reports had 鈥渃omprehensive and detailed accounts鈥 of how they mitigated disinformation and then rated them on a scale from very poor to excellent. Overall, the report found that the efforts to fight disinformation 鈥渞emain very limited, lacking consistency and meaningful engagement鈥. The study said that while Meta and Google launched some initiatives to fight off disinformation, they are frequently criticised 鈥渇or being superficial or symbolic鈥. For example, the report found that accessing tools like Google and Meta鈥檚 political ad and fact-checking labels, along with Microsoft鈥檚 鈥淐ontent Integrity Tools,鈥 is still an issue, compounded by what they call a 鈥渓ack of data鈥 about how many users interact with them by country. 鈥淭here are no user engagement figures, no reported outcomes, and no indication of the actual scale of these efforts,鈥 the report said. The same issue comes up when evaluating the platform鈥檚 commitments to media literacy. Projects such as Meta鈥檚 鈥淲e Think Digital,鈥 a Microsoft partnership with news rating system NewsGuard, and Google鈥檚 pre-bunking 鈥淢ore About This Page鈥 are 鈥渉igh-level鈥 initiatives without measurable data.The researchers said these measures raised doubts about whether they are just 鈥渄eclarative gestures鈥.Meta, Google and TikTok also offer fact-checking panels, user prompts, notifications or labels that explain how information could be factually incorrect or misleading but the companies do not include any real-life data on how they perform. Google, in particular, reports 鈥渓arge-scale reach figures鈥 for their fact-checking panels but does not provide 鈥渕eaningful data鈥 such as how user behaviour changed after seeing it. When it came to providing researchers with data to study disinformation on big platforms, only TikTok received a passing grade. Still, researchers surveyed by the EDMO reported difficulties getting data from the platform鈥檚 Research API database because of its 鈥渙paque application process鈥. The other platforms provide access to 鈥渃ertain datasets鈥 through researcher programmes but getting access to them is still 鈥渉ighly restricted,鈥 the authors note. EDMO used the companies鈥 twice-yearly transparency reports coming from the online platforms, an expert survey and their own internal research to come up with their analysis of compliance.