Facing what one European official described as an “almost overwhelming” deluge of disinformation, the European Union on Monday announced an effort to more proactively protect itself and its citizens from the prevalence of fake news.
The European Commission — the executive arm of the EU — has launched what it calls a ” public consultation,” in which its officials will gather feedback on “the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of voluntary measures already put in place by industry to prevent the spread of disinformation online,” the body said in a statement on its website.
The announcement is the latest acknowledgment by the Western world that fake news — and, in particular, illegitimate content backed by Russian operations — has weaseled its way into international democratic processes.
It’s also a step toward greater information restrictions in a region of the world that’s typically more open to implementing regulations on tech and data operations compared with the U.S. And with America’s own elected officials still looking into how the manipulation of platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google affected the 2016 election cycle, the results of the European investigation could set a precedent for how the U.S. moves forward.
“We live in an era where the flow of information and misinformation has become almost overwhelming. That is why we need to give our citizens the tools to identify fake news, improve trust online, and manage the information they receive,” Frans Timmermans, the first vice president of the European Commission, said in a statement Monday.
As part of its consultation, the European Commission has posted a series of surveys to its website — one for citizens and the other for journalists to share “their professional experience of fake news and online disinformation.” The surveys will remain open until Feb. 23, 2018.
Although the Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election generates the most buzz domestically, fake news sources have been accused of seeking to sway public opinion throughout much of Western Europe in recent months — including Germany, France, the U.K., the Netherlands and, most recently, the Spanish region of Catalonia.
And, much like what’s been seen in the U.S., the disinformation efforts pervading Europe have also been linked with Russia. Dozens of security experts, lawmakers, journalists and academics signed an open letter to EU High Representative Federica Mogherini in March criticizing the continent’s “irresponsibly weak” response to what has been determined to be Kremlin-linked fake news efforts.
“We see questioning and marginalizing of the issue on multiple levels, on claims such as that there is actually no disinformation campaign; that it is not happening in our countries; that it is not corrosive,” the letter said. “We need our leaders to order our security institutions to publicly expose Kremlin actions and actors. Europeans need to know by who and how they are being manipulated.”
Monday’s announcement appears to be an effort by European leadership to address some of these concerns and determine how to walk the delicate line between curbing fake news and censoring legitimate news and information flows to the public.
“We need to find a balanced approach between the freedom of expression, media pluralism and a citizens’ right to access diverse and reliable information. All the relevant players like online platforms or news media should play a part in the solution,” Andrus Ansip, a European Commission vice president and leader of its Digital Single Market operation, said in a statement Monday.
Tech and data executives to this point have been willing to play ball with American lawmakers as members of Congress seek to better understand how platforms like Facebook and Twitter can be hijacked to spread disinformation. A series of recent hearings in the U.S. revealed outlets like Facebook and Twitter continue to see what are believed to be Russian-backed groups and accounts sowing discord around hot-button political issues like NFL player protests.
How cooperative they will be with European authorities — and ultimately what route the European Commission chooses to go — however, remains unclear. Europe has historically been more regulation-happy than the U.S. Right to be Forgotten provisions in Europe, for example, allow citizens to contact search engine providers like Google and request that certain links be removed if they’re deemed harmful or a violation of privacy.
And Facebook and Google, in particular, have found themselves in the crosshairs of the EU’s antitrust enforcer in recent years, at various points facing fines that in Google’s case exceeded $2 billion.
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The expectation isn’t, necessarily, that American lawmakers will follow their European colleagues in step. But the EU’s actions could at least lay groundwork for U.S. lawmakers who to this point appear split on how exactly to proceed. Condemnation of fake news has erupted from Republicans and Democrats alike, but legislators have yet to reach a consensus on whether retroactive fines, greater public-private coordination or stronger sanctions on offenders would be the best route to take.
There’s also a question in the U.S. as to whether President Donald Trump would sign that kind of legislation at all. Trump has repeatedly blasted mainstream media outlets like CNN and The Washington Post as “fake news” in recent months while denying that Russia interfered in the 2016 election — a subject that special investigator Robert Mueller is currently looking into.
Trump, who is currently abroad on a two-week diplomatic trip to Asia, spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin while attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation event in Da Nang, Vietnam. He told reporters on the trip that he asked his Russian counterpart specifically if he had supported efforts to influence Trump’s election. Putin reportedly denied the claim.
“Every time he sees me, he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ ” Trump said, adding that he thinks Putin is “very insulted” by reports that have been backed by U.S. intelligence agencies. “And I believe — I really believe — that when he tells me that, he means it.”
Trump later appeared to walk back his remarks, saying he believes “very much in our intelligence agencies,” according to The Associated Press.
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European Union Taking On ‘Almost Overwhelming’ Fake News Reports originally appeared on usnews.com
