Resist Russian Disinformation As Elections Loom, EU Tells Big Tech

BRUSSELS. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova on Tuesday called on Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, Meta Platform and TikTok to do more to combat Russia's "multibillion-dollar weapon of mass manipulation".

Concerns have grown in recent months over a wave of uncertainty surrounding next year's European Parliament elections, as well as parliamentary elections in Slovakia on September 30 and Poland next month.

The company and other online platforms have provided data on their efforts to combat fake news over the past six months, according to European Union practice on disinformation.

"The Russian state is waging a war of ideas to pollute our information space with half-truths and lies in order to create a false impression that democracy is not better than dictatorship," he said at a press conference.

"Today it is a multi-million dollar weapon of mass manipulation...

"Very large platforms" have to deal with this risk. Even more so, we have to wait for the activities of the Kremlin and others before the elections."

After the last European Parliament elections in 2019, Russia's Security Council called Moscow's baseless accusations of disinformation to influence voters.

Last February, Yevgeny Prigogine, the late head of Wagner's Russian mercenary group, admitted that he founded the Internet Research Agency, which Washington called a disinformation "farm" that interfered in the US presidential election that year. 2016 year

There was a warning about Jourova X, which left the EU voluntary code in May but is considered a "very large online platform" under the Digital Services Act (DSA), subject to stricter content rules.

“Mr (Elon) Musk knows he is not ready to abandon the Code of Practice because we have now fully implemented the Digital Services Act. So my message on Twitter is you have to enforce strict laws and we'll see what he does. ", he said.

Russia, for its part, has clamped down on Western social media platforms after tightening censorship following last year's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, and in March 2022 accused Facebook owner Meta of "extremist activities".

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