Brussels to take action this week against Facebook and Instagram owner over deceptive advertising and political content policies, reports indicate
The EU is preparing to initiate formal actions against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, over worries that it is not sufficiently countering Russian disinformation ahead of the EU elections in June, as reported. Concerns are also anticipated regarding insufficient monitoring of election content and an inadequate system for flagging illegal content.
The European Commission is reportedly concerned that Meta’s moderation system may not be strong enough to combat the spread of fake news and efforts to suppress voting. According to the Financial Times, officials are particularly troubled by how Meta’s platforms are addressing Russia’s attempts to undermine the upcoming European elections, although they are not expected to directly accuse the Kremlin in the proceedings.
Reports indicate that the commission is particularly worried about Meta’s decision to end CrowdTangle, a tool that allows real-time monitoring of fake news and voting suppression efforts by researchers, journalists, and others across the EU.
New EU laws require tech companies like Facebook to regulate their content to ensure compliance with the law, especially concerning election interference. A Meta spokesperson stated, “We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.”
If the action against Meta is confirmed, it will follow shortly after the commission conducted stress tests on major social media platforms to assess their safeguards against Russian disinformation. These tests involved simulated scenarios inspired by past attempts to influence elections and manipulate information through cyber means.
This involved deepfakes and efforts to stifle genuine opinions through online harassment and threats. The EU highlighted opinion suppression as a new method to silence legitimate democratic voices back in February.
“The goal was to assess platforms’ preparedness to tackle manipulative behaviors that could arise before the elections, especially various manipulative tactics and procedures,” stated the commission.
These tests aimed to evaluate social media’s ability to resist manipulation, which politicians expect to increase over the next six weeks.
The European parliamentary elections are scheduled for 6-9 June amid a rise in disinformation throughout the bloc.
The parliament recently issued guidelines for voters, citing past incidents such as claims that only pens with specific ink colors would be accepted on ballot papers.
Politicians have cautioned voters to remain vigilant against disinformation, citing past national elections’ experiences. During elections in Slovakia, Spain, Finland, and Estonia, false stories circulated on social media about voting booths having pens with disappearing ink. Additionally, voters were warned about physical threats, including reports of bombs at polling stations during last year’s Spanish election.
The EU DisinfoLab has documented 17,000 instances of fake news and disinformation, many of which aim to discredit Ukraine’s defense in the conflict against Russia, including Vladimir Putin’s justifications for his invasion.
Recently, a Czech news agency website was hacked to spread false information. One article falsely claimed that the Czech counterintelligence service had thwarted an assassination attempt on Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, while another article featured an alleged response from Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský to this news.
Last month, the Czech government uncovered what it believed to be a disinformation network orchestrated by Moscow.
Additionally, the Belgian prime minister recently disclosed that the federal prosecutor had initiated an investigation into alleged payments by Russia to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) aimed at electing more pro-Russian deputies to the European Parliament.
