The following is indeed something that will substantiate the future communication on the fight against online disinformation and which will be published on 25 April next. On Monday 12 March, the results of a public consultation were published, as well as the results from a Eurobarometer study and the conclusions of an experts’ group on misleading information and online disinformation. The Commission has subsequently reaffirmed its opposition to legislation.
During a press conference, Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, stated, “Since the beginning, our multidimensional and multipartite approach has been based on self-regulation. We need the approach we had at the beginning to remain coherent: We said, give us the time to work on the definitions, on the measures that already exist and those that could be the subject of a joint undertaking”.
Recommendations from high-level group
The high-level group's report of around 40 pages proposes definitions, key principles and short and medium-term objectives. It also defines disinformation (a preferable term to fake news) as, “all forms of false, inaccurate, or misleading information designed, presented and promoted to intentionally cause public harm or for profit”.
The report calls for self-regulation: in the short term, it suggests that the Commission set up a multipartite coalition in charge of drawing up and ensuring the follow-up of a “code of practices” to tackle disinformation. This code is supposed to be based on 10 key principles identified by the high-level group and its objective is to clearly establish the different roles and responsibility of each party. The long-term recommendations focus on education about the media, the funding of quality journalism and the publication of guidelines on state aid to the media sector.
At the same time, the high-level group addresses a number of recommendations to the social media networks including: the adaptation of their policy on advertising, clearly indicating sponsored content (including political advertising), developing reliable information and guarantees for systems to develop user-based marking and reliability systems.
BEUC disappointed
The report was adopted against the opinion of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC). The latter said that, “platforms such as Google and Facebook benefit massively from users who read and share fake news containing advertising”. BEUC describes this as the “politics of the ostrich” (keeping one’s heading the sand). It is particularly critical of the non-binding codes of conduct and lack of a sectoral investigation to locate the connection between developed by the platforms’ advertising revenue policies and the dissemination of disinformation.
Reporters without Borders, however, supported the report, despite expressing certain misgivings about the idea of setting up a new coalition.
Eurobarometer and consultation
The high-level group report is accompanied by other documents. In the preliminary results from the public consultation held from 13 November - 23 February, the Commission highlights the significant interest in the subject, which obtained 3,000 responses. One interesting point is the fact that 99% of citizens who responded, said that they had been confronted by fake news. Half of them consider that the verification of post-publication facts is insufficient, insofar as it will not reach the initial public.
At the same time, the Commission published its Eurobarometer investigation, which demonstrated that 60-70% of respondents trust the traditional media. This figure was only 26-27% for online new sources and video sharing sites. The draft report is available at: http://bit.ly/2p4qjZr (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)