“What is illegal offline, must be illegal online”. If there was only one sentence from the debate on “Democratic Scrutiny on Social Media and the Protection of Fundamental Rights”, held on Wednesday 10 February in the European Parliament, it would probably be this one.
It was delivered by the Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias, and was later taken up - and punctuated with an injunction to “put an end to the digital Wild West” - by the Vice-President of the Commission for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová. MEPs also restated it in various forms.
The starting point for most of the interventions was the closure of former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, decreed by the social network after the invasion of the US Capitol in early January.
An episode that “reminded us of the power of the social media”, stressed Věra Jourová, who found it “really worrying” that they “can permanently remove the account of a sitting president based on vague criteria”. “Even though I believe President Trump’s irresponsible incitement to violence deserved action”, she said.
The coordinator of The Left, Anne-Sophie Pelletier (France), for her part, referred to a national news item: the string of suspensions of posts and Twitter and Instagram accounts by the platforms themselves, sanctioning Internet users who asked the question “How do we get men to stop raping?”. A situation that led to a referral in France, on Wednesday 3 February, to the Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon.
“On the Internet, the freedom of some should not stop where the big bosses of social networks have decided”, insisted Anne-Sophie Pelletier. “The EU must act to safeguard the free debate on social networks”, said Italy’s Annalisa Tardino on behalf of the ID group. Greens/EFA coordinator Alexandra Geese said “arbitrary censorship” is “not an option for democracy”.
More controls
Strengthening control over the platforms was presented as the key to the problem.
“It is up to the democratic institutions, our laws, our courts, to set the rules of the game, to define what is illegal, what is not”, the Secretary of State said.
Without going into detail, Věra Jourová argued for more binding obligations and greater responsibility for digital players. She stressed the need for “more transparency on their policies and access to relevant data”. However, the initiatives taken by the Commission in this respect to counter disinformation about Covid-19 have not proved very conclusive (see EUROPE 12597/2).
On the other hand, MEPs overwhelmingly welcomed the Commission’s proposals on the regulation of digital services and markets (DSA and DMA, see EUROPE 12623/1) and the forthcoming proposal on transparency of sponsored political content (see EUROPE 12644/28), for which they have high expectations.
Also working offline
However, the work should not be limited to the platforms. “We must adapt our education to the digital reality” and “understand the basics of what happens online”, insisted Věra Jourová.
The Socialist coordinator, Marina Kaljurand (Estonia), also stressed the need to “explore ways of promoting media literacy skills”, and Anne-Sophie Pelletier stressed the need for “educational policies” and “development of critical thinking”.
For both the Parliament and the Commission, freedom of expression must, in the end, remain the watchword.
As such, EPP coordinator Magdalena Adamowicz (Poland) paid tribute to the protests for media freedom launched the same day in her country (see other news) and said she regretted “the death of Polish democracy”. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)