Disinformation in COVID-19 time - Council of Europe
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European Parliament Monitoring Group on Democracy, Fundamental
Committee on Civil Liberties Rights and Rule of Law
Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE)
Disinformation in COVID-19 time
Presentation Patrick Penninckx
14 May 2019 Head of the Information Society Department
1
Disinformation pandemic? Source: Repeating a lie does not make it true, euvsdisinfo.eu 2
Disinformation pandemic? Source: Repeating a lie does not make it true, euvsdisinfo.eu 3
Disinformation pandemic? Source: Southfront.org, debunked on euvsdisinfo.eu 4
Disinformation pandemic? Source: Norwaytoday.info 5
Disinformation pandemic? Source: ASSOCHAM webinar: Building Cyber Hygiene & Security Practices in Covid times 6
Disinformation pandemic? Source: ASSOCHAM webinar: Building Cyber Hygiene & Security Practices in Covid times 7
Disinformation pandemic? Source: ASSOCHAM webinar: Building Cyber Hygiene & Security Practices in Covid times 8
COVID-19 related on-line threats
• After an initial spike,
COVID-19 related domains
registered per day are
constantly decreasing
9
COVID-19 related on-line threats
• After an initial spike,
COVID-19 related domains
registered per day are
constantly decreasing
• COVID-19 related spam also
decreasing, but still high →
Phishing and other social
engineering frauds
10What is disinformation? Source: Information Disorder, Council of Europe study 11
Why is disinformation a problem
The right to free ➢ Incorrect information may influence the way
and fair elections that individuals vote.
➢ Disinformation is often targeting specific
individuals and their reputation.
The right to ➢ Disinformation sometimes focuses on
non-discrimination particular groups in society, especially
refugees and migrants, or ethnic minorities;
intentionally or involuntarily inciting violence,
discrimination or hostility.
The right to health ➢ False information about health and disease
prevention can lead to serious risks for people.
The right to freedom ➢ Inappropriate, rash or too restrictive
of expression responses to disinformation pose risks to
freedom of expression and media freedom.
12What facilitates disinformation?
Advances in technology make it New gatekeepers of information -
easy to create fake images and search and social media platforms -
videos. exert a strong influence on how
individuals are informed and form
their opinions.
The shift of communication and Fewer media manage public
information to the internet has debate and influence public
caused a shift of audiences away opinion, as the success of the
from the mainstream media to platforms translated into a loss of
social media. ad revenue for the media.
Result: Decline of trust in information and media as people consume
both established and unreliable news sources without distinction, and
become confused what is true and whom to believe.
13Erosion of trust in media
✓ Fragmentation of public media spaces
✓ Polarisation
✓ Ideologically laden echo-chambers
Source: Digital News Report 2017, Reuters Institute 14Disinformation brings distrust Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2020 15
Disinformation brings distrust
News avoidance
is highest in
Croatia (56%),
Turkey (55%), and
Greece (54%)
Source: Digital News Report 2019, Reuters Institute 16Disinformation brings distrust Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2020 17
Action against disinformation
18Who is benefitting? Most disinformation is created, launched and spread with either political or economic objectives by: ✓ A range of antidemocratic movements ✓ Partisan political actors ✓ Powerful economic forces ✓ Foreign states can benefit from deploying disinformation campaigns ✓ Various individuals using online infrastructure to earn money 19
Who should act?
STATES PLATFORMS
➢ Often entrust the ➢ Routinely remove
important task of or block content
deliberating “what without
is true and what explaining why,
false”, together based on
with the liability, to “community
search and social standards” rules
media platforms
➢ There is no
➢ Some states have independent
enacted legislation oversight of their
for specific cases of takedown
disinformation practices
20Who should act?
Which of the following institutions and media actors
should act to stop the spread of “fake news” ?
Eurobarometer 2018
Study: Automated tackling of disinformation
21The human rights approach
Empowerment of quality ➢ Recommendation on promoting a favourable
journalism environment for quality journalism in the
digital age
Empowerment of media ➢ Study on supporting quality journalism
and information literacy through media and information literacy
skills
Ensuring compliance ➢ Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)2 on the roles
of online platforms and responsibilities of internet intermediaries
Awareness of artificial ➢ Declaration on the manipulative capabilities
intelligence systems of algorithmic processes
manipulative capabilities
➢ Recommendation CM/Rec(2020)1 on the
human rights impacts of algorithmic systems
22Disinformation and COVID-19
Serious impact of disinformation on
individuals’ right to health is a real threat.
Exceptional circumstances justify
exceptional measures including some
restrictions on freedom of expression.
Malicious spreading of disinformation may
be tackled with ex-post targeted sanctions.
Media play a key role in this crisis and also
has an increased responsibility to provide
accurate, reliable information to the public.
Some governments are using the crisis as a
pretext to introduce disproportionate
restrictions to media freedom.
23Signs of hope How people consume COVID-19 news: ✓ People consume more news than usually, with a staggering 99% accessing COVID-19 news at least once a day. ✓ People use more traditional media, especially public broadcasters, to get their COVID-19 news. ✓ Official sources are not only used but also trusted, while the social media have taken a back seat. ✓ Disinformation and confusion about COVID-19 are present but people are more aware and some check other sources. Source: Ofcom weekly research 24
More regulation is needed
Mark Zuckerberg
said he believed
new regulation
was needed in
four areas:
• Harmful content
• Election integrity
• Privacy
• Data portability
(The Guardian,
30 March 2019)
Image: The Economist
25Information Society Department
further resources:
Thanks for your www.coe.int/freedomofexpression
attention !
www.coe.int/dataprotection
www.coe.int/cybercrime
www.coe.int/AI
Facebook Page
Information Society Group
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