The European Commission has activated a coordination mechanism with TikTok and Meta to prevent the spread of hoaxes around the Ceuta crisis. This step was agreed on Monday, after the Vice-President of the European Commission, Henna Virkkunen, urged companies days earlier to “act firmly, especially in crisis situations.” “We will monitor with our agencies and platforms to suppress criminal networks that sell false promises,” said the top official in the EU Executive’s technology area and responsible for implementing the Digital Services Act, which ensures that content spread on networks complies with European rules.
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The step taken by Meta, parent company of digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp, and Bytedance, owner of the short video social network TikTok, is provided for in the European Commission’s code of conduct to which tech companies can voluntarily adhere. These two firms and others such as Microsoft (owner of LinkedIn), Alphabet (Google and YouTube), and Twitch have joined this code. However, the social network X, owned by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, is not included.
The @EU_Commission, @Europol and platforms are exchanging daily and we have increased our coordination.
TikTok and Meta have activated crisis protocols and have now put in place an ad-hoc escalation and cooperation mechanism with fact-checkers.
— Henna Virkkunen (@HennaVirkkunen) August 10, 2026
After the avalanche experienced at the border between the Spanish city of Ceuta and Morocco on July 30 and 31, which resulted in the irregular crossing of more than 70,000 people, several reports have emerged pointing to the role played by hoaxes spread on social networks in that episode. The situation did not change in the following days, as demonstrated by an investigation conducted by EL PAÍS, which showed how a new attempt to massively cross the border through the North African city was being called for on August 15.
In this situation, the European Commission took the step of convening a meeting last week. “The platforms participated — in this case Meta and TikTok — as well as data verification organizations that, while not platforms, are signatories of the code of conduct,” explained a spokesperson for the EU Executive on Tuesday. “On one hand, the platforms confirmed that they had activated their crisis protocols and, on the other hand, it was decided to launch an ad hoc escalation and cooperation mechanism. This is something included in the code of conduct, something that can be activated in times of crisis, so it is now in effect through this mechanism.”
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The commitment reached by the platforms, the spokesperson explained, is “to prohibit content related to smuggling on their platforms,” highlighting the role played by fact-checkers “who know the local context, who can leverage their knowledge of the local situation and who can help optimize the companies’ activities.” “For now, we believe this is an effective tool, but, of course, if necessary, we are willing to go further,” he warned.
Regarding the sequence of meetings, the spokesperson detailed that after the first meeting there was another on Monday and now, once this mechanism has been established, there are daily contacts. “We are also in contact with national law enforcement authorities,” he noted.
Precisely about these contacts, the Finnish Virkkunen also announced that she has spoken with the Minister of Digital Transformation, Óscar López, about the situation in Ceuta. In this context, the Vice-President took the opportunity to recall “the importance of the full implementation of the DSA [Digital Services Act] in Spain” because the Government has not yet approved the regulation that must designate the authority responsible for enforcing this EU regulation.
