Meta and TikTok have agreed to fact-check content about Spain’s border crossings, a voluntary commitment brokered by Brussels after a catastrophe that showed how quickly a viral video can turn into a matter of life and death. The deal was announced by Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s tech chief, with Spain’s digital economy minister, Oscar Lopez, involved in the prevention talks. Under it, Meta and TikTok will set up what the Commission describes as an “ad-hoc escalation and cooperation mechanism with fact-checkers”, effectively a crisis protocol that can be triggered when a situation escalates. The platforms have also agreed to prohibit content linked to people smuggling and to voluntarily block or deprioritise problematic posts. For now, the practical test is whether a hastily assembled protocol can move faster than a video does.