The European Commission welcomes the decision of Rakuten Viber, a cross-platform voice and instant messaging application, to join the EU Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online.
Didier Reynders, Commissioner for Justice, said:
“The growing number of signatories shows that the Code of Conduct is an effective tool for fighting hate speech online. We strongly encourage businesses and platforms to join us in our engagement to create a safer digital space.”
Rakuten Viber is the eleventh partner to join the Code of Conduct. Launched in 2016 together with Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube, the Code was by now joined by Instagram, Snapchat, Dailymotion, Jeuxvideo.com, TikTok and LinkedIn.
As underlined by the results of its sixth evaluation, published in October 2021, the Code of Conduct has achieved positive results. On average, IT companies reviewed 81% of the notifications within 24 hours and removed 62.5% of flagged content. Within the framework of the Digital Services Act, the Code of conduct contributes to creating a more robust EU-wide response against hate speech online.