Between the tweets of Donald Trump on the Bleach and 80 million content is removed or blocked by Google in the world during the crisis of the Covid-19, the european Commission does not hide behind its little finger to refer to the troublemakers who have endangered the lives of Europeans by spreading false information. “Russia and China are the main providers of content aimed at misinforming european citizens “, attack the commissioner’s Values and Transparency Vera Jourova, who was, Wednesday morning, the outcome of the sequence Covid-19.
The task force “East StratCom” of the european Service for external action, directed by the commissioner Josep Borrell, has counted more than 550 messages of misinformation from sources that are pro-Kremlin. A special Web site, EUvsDisinfo, lists all the brainwashing from Moscow… The site is worth the look, it is edifying.
platform TikTok will join the code of good practice
” I support the action of Twitter tweets from the president Trump “, will take over as commissioner Jourova said that the intent of the “code of good practices” put in place by Brussels, in October 2018, with online platforms is not to remove all of the falsehoods circulated on the web, but to counter them with facts. “Twitter has not deleted a single tweet from the president Trump, we can all still see them, but Twitter has added information verified as well as established facts in which the platform has been advertising “, is welcomed.
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In general, the commissioner Jourova has welcomed the action of online platforms during this health crisis. Facebook, Google, Twitter, Mozilla, were the first to adhere to the code of good practice in 2018. Microsoft has joined the movement by 2019. The commissioner Jourova announced that the platform of video TikTok will join in turn to the code. From the beginning of the pandemic, the Commission agreed with the platforms of the promotion of links to the WHO and the health authorities. Platforms have agreed to remove the ads boasting of false miracle cures, or those that swell unduly the price of regular consumer goods.
The Germans désinformés on vaccines
” disinformation imperils not only the health of citizens but also that of the democracies, underlines Vera Jourova. It may reflect negatively on the economy and undermine the reaction of the public authorities. In this sense, it can undermine the measures that are taken on the front health. Unfortunately, the misinformation will continue. It seems that the next battleground is that of vaccination. For example, a study has shown that the willingness of the Germans to get vaccinated has declined. She lost almost 20 percentage points in less than two months. “
This shows that there is still much to do in this delicate area, which needs to combine and balance the right to freedom of expression and the fight against the misinformation. Write a silly thing on a social network is not illegal. It is not to delete content that speak a nonsense, but to rebalance this flow of disinformation by putting forward facts, reliable to the reader. Hazardous content are not necessarily illegal, unlike hate speech or calling for violence, which must be removed. The Commission attempts to provide an appropriate response to these different types of messages without restoring censorship is intolerable. The madness of the health crisis has hit up in the United Kingdom, where a rumor complotiste attributed to the antennas 5G the gift of spreading the coronavirus…
When the official authorities over-stepping the mark…
However, you have to be honest, we are coming out of an episode of health also devastating for the official word. Who can they trust when those who are supposed to be authoritative endanger the lives of others by their behavior or their words ? If Donald Trump is striking : he claimed to have joked about the Bleach, but his remarks have been taken at the first degree to the point that some of his supporters have not hesitated to swallow… Then, he said take chloroquine as a preventive measure, which does not correspond to any medical indication recommended.
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Even the scientific journals of reference such as The Lancet have published a study on the health effects of chloroquine, which, after a critical examination of the data showed that it was not reliable. Three of its four authors are déjugés in front of the many errors identified by the scientific community, and professor Raoult in particular. What can we say conflicting messages from government authorities in france on the usefulness or not of wearing a mask ? WHO has not been irreproachable, it is the least we can say… so much So that the social networks have not had the monopoly on misinformation or the wrong information. The official word is much damaged.
The infox relates more
But the european Commission cannot afford to distribute the good and bad points to the european governments… It is therefore up to the platforms. “They must do more, and our code [of good practices, editor’s NOTE] is only a first step in the right direction,” believes the commissioner Jourova. First, Twitter, Facebook, Google, or Microsoft do not communicate to the Commission that what they want to reveal… The Commission has no way to verify. Also, Brussels requested that future platforms provide “evidence” and assess the actual effectiveness of the measures taken. “We invite you now to provide us with monthly reports with more accurate information than what we observed until now “, she said. The Commission also wishes to hit to the portfolio by targeting the advertising revenue related to ads spreading false news. Misinformation is also a business, and the platforms would be tempted to close the eyes on some of the content misleading very lucrative. Finally, at the end of the year, the directive on digital services (Digital Services) Act intends to strengthen the responsibility of the platforms on the content, much more than the plan put in place 20 years ago through the e-commerce directive of 8 June 2000.
” The lie, this is not new and it is not so scary as it. What scares me, is our gullibility in the face of these lies, ” said the commissioner, who wants to use traditional media, such as a wall. “I don’t want to introduce the ministry of the Truth, she defends herself. I have lived in a system prior to 1989 when there was only one truth official ; there was no pluralism in the media, in public opinion, or even in thought. We must, and we’re going to do, support the mechanism of verification of the facts, research activities through the european Observatory of digital media. “The Observatory has just been launched. The Commission wishes to invest 9 million euros in the field of research and fact-checking. The traditional media should also be supported by the european recovery plan.
Read also Commission : with Vera Jourova, the eu wants to wash more white
When Macron shouts at Putin
of course, Vladimir Putin is defending itself to be the sponsor of this war of disinformation. Russia Today and Sputnik are organs of private initiative, just as the gigantic “factory of trolls” based in Saint-Petersburg (funded by the oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, close to the Kremlin).
Read also Russia : the” plant of trolls ” runs at full speed
When the Russian president came to Paris, Emmanuel Macron him had hit two words in their head-to-head. The head of State considered that the misrepresentation of Russia Today against him during his presidential campaign were a blow below the belt from the hand of his counterpart. “But you are the public media such as France Inter, had replicated Vladimir Putin. “” I invite you to listen to France Inter all morning, at 8 o’clock, you will see that the tone in my regard has nothing to do with the tone of the Russian media “, said the French president. It is, in any case, this dialogue than reported by Emmanuel Macron during a meeting with journalists, including The Point.
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