"Action Plan against Disinformation" from @EU_Commission out. Thanks to @Ansip_EU @VeraJourova @JKingEU @GabrielMariya & @FedericaMog for basing response on freedom of expression, emphasizing collaboration,and insisting on monitoring platforms. Beyond that, bit disappointing 1/12
Plan identifies disinformation as a “major challenge for European democracies and societies”, calls for “urgent and immediate action” and “strong commitments” in response, especially in light of @europarl coming up in May and 50+ other elections in Member States by 2020. 2/12
What is that strong commitment? First of all, €3.1m more to EEAS “strategic communication budget”, which includes (controversial) @EUvsDisinfo but also more broadly "communication on Union values and policies", e.g. promotion. 3/12
(In contrast to public authorities engaging in debunking and strategic communication, High Level Group report favored independent responses by outside actors, not government initiatives with civil servants telling citizens what's wrong & what's right) ec.europa.eu/digital-single… 4/12
Second, calls for EU institutions+member states to pursue coordinated responses (especially to state-backed information operations) and announce dedicated Rapid Alert System will be set up. If done well (as during Swedish elections), probably sensible, but more gov action. 5/12
Third, the @EU_Commission will monitor implementation of the commitments that signatories (most importantly big platforms) made in “Code of Practice”, w/regular reporting and publication of data from Jan 2019. If commission can identify specific metrics, this is really good. 6/12
Beyond that? Not much tangible I can see. (Let me know if I am wrong.) Point back to June CfP in field of data-driven news production (€1.9m), a further €2.5m for network of independent fact-checkers is “foreseen”, also lots of "shoulds" & gestures towards future support 7/12
Suggestion of more significant commitments to media support, media literacy, and research in the next Creative Europe and Horizon Europe programmes sounds good - but all of that will at best be from 2021 and onward and after the end of the current Commission, so who knows. 8/12
In summary,1) good commitment to fundamental rights,2) good emphasis on collaboration,3) good to keep pressure on platforms. But nothing tangible beyond that apart from a few million Euro to... @EU_Commission itself? (for somewhat controversial strategic communication work?) 9/12
I'm in favor of soft-power approach that incentivize private sector,NGOs, & others to collaboratively respond. Still, compare €3.1m commitment here to address “major challenge for European democracies” with €12m for free InterRail passes for up to 30k people turning 18... 11/12
HLG called for €100+m in funding for independent initiatives (not gov' initiatives), and as @Ansip_EU noted today, “Disinformation is part of [Kremlin's] strategy to divide and weaken the west. Russia spends €1.1bn a year on pro-Kremlin media" theguardian.com/world/2018/dec… 12/12
For those w/patience for even more of this, a few past observations
1) Six Key Points from the HLG report Disinformation:
medium.com/@hlegresponse/…
2) On Europe's "soft power" approach to disinformation: theconversation.com/europes-chance…
3) On Code of Practice:
1) Six Key Points from the HLG report Disinformation:
medium.com/@hlegresponse/…
2) On Europe's "soft power" approach to disinformation: theconversation.com/europes-chance…
3) On Code of Practice:
