Insight
Will the Digital Services Act save Europe from disinformation? by Zach Meyers, 21 April 2022 In negotiating the Digital Services Act, EU law-makers balanced tackling disinformation with protecting free speech. The Commission’s last-minute proposal for stricter regulation of tech platforms during crises undermines this balance. Online disinformation – material propagated with the intention to mislead – is a serious threat to the EU. It has contributed to many of the EU’s recent challenges: panic about immigration, the rise of the far right and left, Islamophobia, vaccine hesitancy and Brexit. Europe’s rivals, in particular Russia and China, use disinformation campaigns as low-cost and low-risk methods to foment dissent and promote their preferred narratives about these issues in the EU. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the latest battleground online. Platforms like Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram have been flooded with Putin’s lies about the ‘Nazification’ of Ukraine. This flood of disinformation comes as the EU is finalising the Digital Services Act (DSA), a major new law designed to regulate online platforms, including social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and TikTok which are used to disseminate disinformation. The DSA forces large platforms to be more transparent and accountable for tackling disinformation. As law-makers finalise the DSA, the European Commission has begun insisting it needs stronger powers to direct how platforms tackle disinformation during crises. These powers would undermine the careful compromises law-makers have already agreed in the DSA – and risk making platforms’ responses to disinformation worse. In the EU, spreading false or misleading information is not generally illegal. Freedom of expression includes the right to express incorrect views. And the distinction between ‘fake news’ and ‘legitimate opinion’ is often contested. Despite the EU’s recent decision to ban Russian media outlets Russia Today and Sputnik from broadcasting in the EU, policy-makers generally recognise that simply banning disinformation is not a realistic or desirable option. Instead, the EU has sought to curb the impact of lies peddled online in ways which preserve free speech. For example, the EU’s 2018 Action Plan against Disinformation focused on identifying disinformation, supporting independent media and fact-checkers, and promoting media literacy. The EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS) also set up strategic communications divisions, known as the StratCom Task Forces. The EU’s 2020 European Democracy Action Plan also established a framework for collecting evidence about foreign disinformation CER INSIGHT: Will the Digital Services Act save Europe from disinformation? 21 April 2022
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