On Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 April, the European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová, provided an update to the respective presidents of the EU member state electoral committees about the measures implemented at national level to tackle the new challenges created by social media in the electoral process.
In the meeting, the Commissioner called on member states to work together on this subject. She emphasised that, “If only two or three countries experience manipulation in elections, the whole EU is at risk”.
It should be recalled that at the beginning of April, Ms Jourová announced that this meeting would be held in Brussels (see EUROPE 11998) in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which illustrates how Facebook network users’ personal data can be exploited in an election context (see EUROPE 11996).
Ms Jourová stated, “Traditional media are highly regulated when it comes to election campaigns, but social media hardly are. This is like a black box. I have more than once said that the internet cannot be the Wild West and the law must also apply there”.
During the meeting, the member states shared their experiences and responses to these new risks. Other work sessions also tackled the issue of promoting participation in the election process, particularly with regard to underrepresented groups, and the question of protection against cyber-attacks.
At an EU level, the Commission is also preparing the groundwork in this regard. On the same day it also presented a raft of measures to tackle online misinformation, including the elaboration of a code of good practices (see other article).
The Commission now intends to continue the dialogue with a member state about the risk management relating to the election process in view of the 2019 European elections. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)