Meta, TikTok to Fact-Check Border-Crossing Content Following Ceuta Crisis, EU Says
By Edith Hancock
Social media giants Meta Platforms and TikTok agreed to collaborate with fact-checkers to address disinformation related to border crossings after the recent influx of people into the Spanish territory of Ceuta, the European Union's top tech enforcer said.
More than 70,000 people entered Ceuta--a Spanish territory in North Africa bordering Morocco--in late July. Officials are concerned that misleading social media posts spurred the surge into the enclave, which resulted in dozens of deaths. Some posts stated that those who swam to Ceuta or Melilla--another Spanish city on the North African coast--couldn't be returned.
Henna Virkkunen, the bloc's tech commissioner, said in a social media post late Monday that TikTok and Meta had "activated crisis protocols" and put in place a so-called cooperation mechanism with fact-checkers.
A spokesperson for the European Commission--the bloc's executive arm--said on Tuesday that through that channel, fact-checking organizations can flag harmful disinformation to platforms, and the platforms themselves can take further action.
A spokesperson for Meta said that the company is monitoring the situation in Ceuta and is removing content that breaches its policies--including content linked to human smuggling services. TikTok said that it has mobilized a task force closely monitoring the situation and that it has strict rules against content that facilitates or promotes illegal border crossings and human smuggling.
Virkkunen said that she spoke with Spain's digital transformation minister, Oscar Lopez, to discuss the situation and "how to prevent such dangerous and illegal journeys and the tragic loss of life."
"In the face of disinformation campaigns and the manipulation of people on social media, we are working in a coordinated manner to ensure no more lives are put at risk," Spain's Lopez said in a post on X.
Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 11, 2026 12:13 ET (16:13 GMT)
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