EU urges internet giants to work harder fighting fake news

European Union authorities warned Facebook, Google and Twitter on Tuesday that they need to work harder to combat fake news ahead of upcoming bloc-wide parliamentary elections.

The EU's executive commissioners said that while the US internet giants have made some progress, they need to pick up the pace of their work fighting disinformation and if their efforts are unsatisfactory, they could face regulation.

The Commission has been turning up the heat on tech giants ahead of the elections scheduled for May, in which millions of people in 27 EU member countries will vote for 705 lawmakers in the bloc's parliament.

EU officials want to prevent the misuse of social media platforms by foreign groups trying to meddle in elections, and have singled out Russia as a main source of disinformation in Europe.

Google, Facebook, Twitter and browser maker Mozilla are companies that so far have signed up to a voluntary EU code of conduct on fighting disinformation. The Commission said they've made good progress removing fake accounts and limiting sites promoting disinformation.

But officials are concerned that some tools the tech companies have introduced to scrutinize political ads have not yet been rolled out to all of the EU member countries.

"A lot of these initiatives are limited to a number of member states," EU digital economy commissioner Mariya Gabriel said at a press briefing.

"Let's be clear: fake news knows no borders."