A new EU initiative around democracy is moving to combat disinformation more quickly, Europe editor Tony Connelly has told Behind the Story.
The plan, being spearheaded by Ireland's EU Commissioner Michael McGrath, will include the creation of a Centre for Democratic Resilience to act as a hub for a range of EU expertise.
Tony said the proposal is hoping to combat disinformation during an election cycle.
He explained that "time is of the essence" in such a scenario.
"If you’re 24 hours away from an election and suddenly there’s a flood of disinformation that has been artificially amplified through algorithms, that needs to be detected, and member states have to be able to respond to it," he said.
"Within this launch today there is a real sense that European democracy is at risk from foreign actors who are better resourced, who are a lot more assertive.
"We’ve seen this is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; disinformation is now part of a battery of alleged weapons that the Russians are using in a hybrid war against the EU.
"There has been a huge pivot among the big tech companies in America to move away from in-house fact checking and open it up to 'community fact checking.’"
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Tony said Brussels is treading carefully on its approach, making the Democracy Shield voluntary.
"I think it’s tricky territory for the (European) Commission because running an election in a member state is a very sensitive issue for member states," he said.
"This really touches upon national sovereignty at a very profound level. The emphasis is that this is a voluntary approach for member states.
"(However), it’s not voluntary when it comes to big tech platforms, because under the Digital Services Act, they are legally obliged to take action - whether it is taking down content that is illegal or taking down content that is deliberately amplifying a one-sided view of a political position."
Tony said the ‘shield’ will also focus on the media.
"They want to make sure that public service media is well-funded, they want to boost media literacy (and) digital literacy to try and get an awareness of the risks of disinformation embedded at an early age for teenagers.
"They even want to use influencers to play a part."
Fran McNulty and Laura Fletcher also discuss the Government’s latest housing plan, due to be published tomorrow, and how it compares to previous targets.
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