PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union executive has started drafting guidelines for Big Tech platforms to prevent disinformation, hate speech and counterfeiting from disrupting the democratic electoral process.
More than a third of the world’s population will vote this year, as the power and influence of big tech companies comes under increasing scrutiny.
“These are the first-ever guidelines and are intended to provide best practices for the very largest online platforms and search engines,” the commission said Thursday.
The EU launched a public consultation earlier this week, and parties will have until March 7 to receive feedback. EU policymakers are calling on tech giants to take steps to reduce risks, particularly regarding the threat of AI-generated content.
This year, national elections will be held in Portugal, Belgium, Croatia, Romania, and Austria, and European Union parliamentary elections will be held in June.
The US presidential election is also scheduled for later this year, with voting also taking place in Mexico, South Korea, Ghana and many other countries.
“We know that the EU election period will be a target for hybrid attacks and foreign interference of all kinds,” EU Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Wednesday, adding that he would not rely on technology platforms to protect free and fair elections. He encouraged them to play their part.
Earlier this month, the EU sent requests to more than a dozen tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Meta and Alphabet’s Google, to give researchers access to data that could be relevant to upcoming EU and national elections. We asked them what steps they are taking to ensure this. .
(Reporting by Tashiro Hummel; Editing by Christina Fincher)