Empty chair for Twitter, which skips EU hate speech meeting, citing Covid

European justice ministers will on Friday discuss online hate crime with representatives from Meta and Google - and an empty chair with a Twitter tag because the company stayed away citing its COVID rules, France said. Social media and online platforms face a raft of legislative proposals on both sides of the Atlantic that will require them to do more to counter online hate speech and disinformation.

In the EU, the Digital Services Act would force tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content on their platforms, with fines of up to 6% of global turnover for non-compliance. Another planned law, the Digital Markets Act, would set out other rules for companies. "It is high time that we adopt an EU legislation so that platforms don't have the last word. That's why this morning we have invited the platforms," said French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, who hosts a meeting of the bloc's ministers.

Dupond-Moretti said he regretted Twitter's absence. "We were told that because of that company's own health rules they could not come. But I can only note that my European counterparts will be here," he said.

"When you want to do it you can do it. But there will still be a chair, it will be empty, and there will be in front of this chair the Twitter tag, to show they are not there and to regret it," he added. "Google and Facebook will be here." A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the company was staying away because of COVID rules but said it was cooperating with authorities to make the internet safer.

"While we are not able to attend the EU Justice Ministers informal meeting in person this time due to COVID-19 restrictions, we remain fully committed to participating in these important conversations," the spokesperson said. Meta and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twitter last month lost a hate speech court battle in France, with judges saying it must disclose details on what it does to tackle online hatred in the country.