Safeguarding Democracy Against Disinformation

Key points: 

The EESC:

• warns European authorities of the urgent need to assess the risks of addiction that social media and digital platforms create in vulnerable groups of our societies and to regulate the commercial use of Artificial Intelligence and algorithms;
• suggests that the EU Institutions and all the Member States engage in a multi-factor strategy that reinforces all the previous measures to fight disinformation and prevents the use of digital platforms by organised fake identities as well as the in adoption of instruments that foster cooperation between national, regional and local news media in Europe;
• asks the European Commission to evaluate the effect of the current regulations applied to social media and digital platforms regarding disinformation and to analyse the current level of disinformation monetisation in social media and digital platforms;
• requests the European Commission to develop a plan that ensures quality in local and regional information;
• asks that adequate resources be provided to the European External Action Service to fight and control foreign information manipulations and interference;
• requests that the European and digital media observatory (EDMO) be reinforced to serve as a hub for fact checkers independent of all public authorities aiming to improve detection of online disinformation and to empower citizens to respond to online disinformation;
• observes that a necessary first step to guaranteeing that pluralism in the media is not dependent on strict market rules is to classify journalism as a European public good as suggested by UNESCO;
• recommends that the Commission study the viability of a public European news channel available on different platforms and in all national languages with an independent editorial commitment to allow citizens access to factual information.