In an open letter published on Wednesday 29 March, eight Prime Ministers from countries on the frontline of Russian propaganda have implored digital platforms to actively engage in the fight against disinformation.
Petr Fiala (Czech Republic), Eduard Heger (Slovakia), Kaja Kallas (Estonia), Krišjānis Kariņš (Latvia), Mateusz Morawiecki (Poland), Ingrida Šimonytė (Lithuania), Dorin Recean (Moldova), and Denys Shmyhal (Ukraine) have therefore noted that the Internet has become a “virtual battleground”, particularly in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Exploited by “hostile foreign powers”, social networks in particular have become “potent channels for spreading false and manipulative narratives. Paid ads and artificial amplification on Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, are often used to call for violence [...] and destabilise governments”, they continued to explain.
They have called on the relevant companies to ensure that they are not used to propagate content “that promotes war, justifies war crimes, crimes against humanity or other forms of violence”.
In this respect, the co-signatories have suggested a series of actions: - refrain from accepting payments from individuals that have been sanctioned for human rights violations; - design algorithms that prioritise “truthfulness over engagement”; - facilitate researchers’ access to their data to gain a better understanding of manipulation campaigns; - devote sufficient financial resources and staff to work on moderating content; - tackle disinformation generated by artificial intelligence by identifying it; - establish a consistent global interpretation of regulation and self-regulation of technology companies.
While Moldova has been particularly affected by the ‘information war’ since the invasion of Ukraine, the other seven signatories (including six EU Member States) have been targeted by Russian disinformation operations. However, they point out, the ultimate goals of information warfare are “universal”, namely to destabilise democracies (see EUROPE 13063/29).
Read the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/63y (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)