The European Commission has admitted that the EU Digital Services Act does not apply to content generated outside the block, recognising that its detection and removal depends on the voluntary action of social media platforms.
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11/08/2026
by
Lusa
ANDthis statement arises after, on Monday, the technological companies Meta and TikTok announced that they activated their crisis protocols and agreed to create, through the European Union (EU), an ‘ad hoc’ control mechanism with fact checkers’ to combat misinformation related to the migration crisis in Ceuta.
At the daily press conference of the European Commission in Brussels, spokesman Balazs Ujvari stressed that this type of ‘ad hoc’ mechanism is provided for in the ‘code of conduct on misinformation’ established by the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), but is a ‘non-binding instrument based on voluntary cooperation’.
As indicated by this mechanism, the European Commission is limited to acting as intermediary between ‘fact checkers’ organisations and social media platforms to help them ‘apply their own rules better’.
“ All platforms have committed to banning content related to illicit trafficking. Therefore, we involve fact checkers, who know the local context and can rely on their knowledge of the situation on the ground, to help detect activities on the platforms. All this is being done under the coordination of the Commission”, he said.
The spokesman defended this type of mechanism, considering that it is a “very effective tool to ensure that platforms apply their own rules”, but stressed that, if necessary, the European Commission is prepared to “go further.”.
Asked whether the rules of the DSA also apply to misinformation campaigns against the EU generated outside the bloc, such as that in Ceuta, Balazs Ujvari did not respond directly, stressing that the logic is “voluntary cooperation”.
“It’s voluntary. We do not force companies to remove any content. This must be made very clear,” he said, adding that any decision on content on social networks is made by the “platforms and not by the European Commission”.
“ We simply coordinate, bring together the different players. But all this is done on a voluntary basis”, he said.
The spokesman for the European Commission Arianna Podestà acknowledged, however, that the DSA only applies to the EU and activities within the EU.
“Outside this scope, it is based on voluntary cooperation,” he said.
Some 72,000 people entered the autonomous Spanish city of Ceuta, located in North Africa, in 24 hours by the end of July and 70,000 have already returned to Morocco, indicating data from the Spanish authorities.
At least 82 people died trying to swim to Ceuta.
According to the organization of verification of facts Damn.es, the situation was fueled by false messages disseminated online, claiming that migrants would be welcomed in Spain.
On Monday, former European Commissioner Thierry Breton considered that the situation in Ceuta was not a migration crisis, but the “first large-scale hybrid attack” against the EU and should be investigated.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Thierry Breton argued that the situation in Ceuta highlighted a “government crisis in the European Union, revealed by a migratory phenomenon”.
“This was the first large-scale algorithmic hybrid attack on an EU external border,” the European Commissioner for the Internal Market defended between 2019 and 2024.