Promote the need for sincere information for a democracy based on trust
Last Thursday, the European Commission published a working document that assesses the implementation and effectiveness of the Code of Practice on Disinformation (COP) (published in September 2018). Although this Code has been, according to the report, a “valuable instrument” in the fight against disinformation, the document mostly highlights its limitations and shortcomings, “mainly due to the Code’s self-regulatory nature.” Several areas are in need of further attention, such as those concerning public elections and political advertising (microtargeting, the lack of transparency and the lack of spending limits for advertising on the European level). The report stresses the inadequacy of the tools in place to fight against disinformation. It calls for a more structured cooperation between digital platforms and the research community, for example by giving the latter better access to data.
