Brussels assembles experts to tackle fake news
Brussels assembles experts to tackle fake news
A 29-member expert group to tackle fake news has been
launched in Brussels. Bulgarian EU commissioner Mariya Gabriel said Europe
needed a joint approach that must be "carefully thought through."
April 1, 2018
Gabriel, the EU's digital affairs commissioner, told the
group Monday that mechanisms were needed to identify and limit the circulation
of false information which was "spreading today at a disturbing
rate."
The group, comprising outlets such as Facebook, Sky and
RTL, watchdog groups such as Reporters Without Borders, and academics, is due
to submit its recommendations to the European Commission by the end of April.
The commission's initiative follows widespread criticism
in France and Germany of government drives to curb flows of information deemed
fake, especially via social media.
German, French initiatives
Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron
announced he would introduce legislation to stop fake news prior to French
elections.
In Germany since January 1 media outlets risk fines of up
to 50 million euros ($61 million) if they fail to remove obvious hate speech
within 24 hours.
Examples included a racist tweet directed at the son of
tennis veteran Boris Becker and a far-right parliamentarian's questioning of
Cologne police using Arabic.
Justice Minister Heiko Maas, who steered the legislation
through Germany's previous parliament, has since faced widespread calls to
abandon the law, adopted after a surge in racist and incendiary speech online.
Last Tuesday, the tabloid newspaper Bild urged Berlin to
"spare us the thought police."
Maas replied that "calls to murder, threats, insults
and incitement of the masses, or Auschwitz lies are not an expression of
freedom of opinion but rather attacks on the freedom of opinion of
others."
ipj/kms (Reuters, AP, dpa, AFP)
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