The European Commission has reached another milestone in the fight against fake news. On 15 January it inaugurated the first high-level group of experts on fake news in Brussels. The conclusions of this group will help develop this strategy on tackling fake news planned for spring 2018.
The Commission considers fake news as, “deliberate misinformation disseminated through online social media or broadcast or written news media”. In 2017, it carried out a reflection project on how to tackle this kind of news. In November it organised a multi-party conference and launched a public consultation (closing on 23 February) on fake news when the contents of the latter is legal. It also launched a call for candidacies to set up an experts’ group on fake news (see EUROPE 11903). It is this group that held its first meeting on 15 January.
A shift towards European strategy
The new workgroup consists of 39 members from civil society, social media platforms, news media, newspapers and academic community. It is chaired by Madeleine de Cock Buning, a professor at the University of Utrecht and a specialist in intellectual property, copyright and media and communication law. She is also the former president of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA).
The aim of the new experts' group will be to advise the Commission. Initially, it will seek to develop a rethink with regard to a European definition of fake news, explained Commissioner Mariya Gabriel. Secondly, it will organise itself as a workgroup to reflect about delineating these phenomena, rules/responsibilities of each party and the international dimension of the issue. Its recommendations will help develop the European Commission's strategy whose publication is expected in spring this year.
National initiatives
When asked about the link between this initiative and the European elections, Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and President Madeleine de Cock Buning provided assurances that the workgroup was not going to focus on any specific situation. The two leaders also refused to comment on the German and French projects for introducing legislation on fake news. The Commissioner would only state that, “Mr Macron’s proposal demonstrates the political importance of the issue and that any solution must be thought out. We need to prevent the debate at a national level going in the direction that cannot have the same added value at European level”.
It should be recalled that the French President, Emmanuel Macron, announced at the beginning of January that he was planning to regulate the publication of fake news on the Internet during election periods. He mentioned “another action on the subject would, if necessary, help remove the suspect content, dereference the website, close down the user’s account and block access to the website".
At the same time, a controversial law is entering into force in Germany to force online platforms that incite hatred to withdraw content within 24 hours or face a possible fine of up to €50 million. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)