The European Commission on Tuesday expressed concerns about online disinformation campaigns potentially targeting next year’s European elections.
Vice-President V?ra Jourová called on social media platforms to take action and singled out the Kremlin as one of the main drivers behind misleading online content, targeted at users in the European Union.
EU citizens are to vote in a new European Parliament next June.
“The Russian state has engaged in the war of ideas to pollute our information space with half-truths and lies to create a false image that democracy is no better than autocracy,” she said.
“The very large platforms must address this risk, especially that we have to expect that the Kremlin and others would be active before our European elections.”
Under a recent EU law, called the Digital Services Act, platforms with more than 45 million active users are subject to far-reaching content moderation rules.
This applies to different social media, including TikTok, Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.
Additionally, many big online platforms are signatories to the voluntary EU Code of Practice on Disinformation.
X, however, left the agreement in May.
