Given the growing fears of interference by digital platforms in electoral processes and, above all, the controversial support of the owner of all mechanisms are in place to “evaluate and mitigate” possible risks ahead of the German elections on February 23.
To this end, the European Commission held a round table this Friday in which representatives from Microsoft, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google, Snap, Meta and X participated. The objective, explained the community spokesperson for technological sovereignty issues, Thomas Regnier , is to guarantee that these social networks that are key today for citizen information—and often a means of transmitting fake news—are fully aware that important elections are approaching and that they must prepare for it “with the appropriate measures to guarantee free and fair elections of the citizens.” Especially at a time when some of them, like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, have decided to abandon their policy of surveillance and comparison of hoaxes to move to a model in which it is the community of their social networks (Facebook, Instagram and Threads). ) who would do that job, a system similar to the one X already has.
In this first meeting “the responsibility of the large platforms was highlighted on-line and search tools and your obligations under the DSA [ley europea de servicios digitales]”, community sources have indicated after the meeting, held behind closed doors.
The level of preparation of the platforms will be checked a week later, on Friday the 31st, when the same platforms have agreed to undergo a stress test to “test potential scenarios” where the European Digital Services Law (DSA) is applied, the purpose of which is is to fight against illicit content and misinformation on large platforms. There we will see “how these platforms react” to these eventual cases, the spokesperson added.
This is not the first time this type of test has been carried out. There have already been round tables and preparations for, among others, the European elections last June, which were another moment of maximum alert in the face of the known and feared attempts at disinformation, especially by Russia, but also from within the country itself. European Union. On this occasion, however, the tests are carried out at the request of the German authorities, who will be present at the meetings, according to Brussels.
The German appointment with the polls to elect a new chancellor, after the social democrat Olaf Scholz broke the coalition with the Greens and Liberals at the end of last year, is being held in a new state of alert and maximum concern about possible foreign interference. In this case, it’s not just a fear: in December, Musk used his platform, where he reaches hundreds of millions of people, to support the German far-right party. “Only AfD can save Germany,” he wrote in X on December 19.
The magnate and far-right agitator, who is also now a member of Donald Trump’s new Government, has also commented on the decision of the Romanian Constitutional Court to annul the presidential elections after the victory of the pro-Russian Calin Georgescu in the first round, largely due to his support on TikTok, and has agitated the networks against the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer – who responded by accusing Musk of “spreading lies and misinformation” – and France, where the president, Emmanuel Macron stated that the magnate leads “a new international of reactionaries.”
Last week, the European Commission announced that it has expanded the investigation it already had open into X to determine whether the company does enough to moderate the content it offers. The community spokesperson confirmed this Friday that this investigation continues and that they are “working at full speed” to make a decision that could involve heavy fines for the platform.
