Eight Central and Eastern European countries are calling on big tech companies to make strong commitments to combat misinformation on their platforms.
Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These eight Central and Eastern European countries urged platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to take concrete measures to combat disinformation, in a letter signed by their respective prime ministers, the agency reported. Reuters Wednesday March 29.
“The manipulation of information and foreign interference, including disinformation, are deployed to destabilize our countries, weaken our democracies, derail Moldova’s and Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and weaken our support for Ukraine in the context of Russia’s war of aggression,” reads the missive sent to the media.
“Big tech companies need to be vigilant and not allow themselves to be manipulated. They should take steps to ensure that their platform is not used to spread propaganda or disinformation that promotes war, justifies war crimes , crimes against humanity or other forms of violence.”
A threat to democracies
To achieve this objective, the eight nations suggest avenues such as making the way in which the algorithms of these platforms are designed more transparent and informing the public more of the policies implemented by these companies.
In addition, the latter are encouraged to dedicate enough staff and funds to content moderation, which is not the case on a social network like Twitter, and to tackle the growing threat of “deepfakes” and misinformation induced by the use of artificial intelligence tools.
“This is a call to action because the manipulation and interference of foreign information, including disinformation campaigns, poses a threat to democracy, stability and national security. Big tech companies have the power to be essential allies in our common effort to combat these hostile attacks on democracies and the rules-based international order.”
