EU's top diplomat on election manipulation via online platforms:Romania no isolated case, we need to move fast
Brussels, Feb 12 - AGERPRES special correspondent Florin Stefan reports: The case of Romania, that had its presidential election annulled due to disinformation, is not an isolated one and the European Union needs to move faster in order to send a clear message about the reason why it has regulations in place regarding the activity of online platforms, which is to protect our democracy which is increasingly under attack, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas told the European Newsroom (enr) in an interview on Wednesday in Brussels.
'The Romanian presidential election was canceled due to the misinformation, and this is increasingly a bigger problem, how the platforms are used to manipulate elections. So I think Romania is not an isolated case and Europe is facing a sharp raise in disinformation,' the EU's chief diplomat said in response to a question by AGERPRES.
She specified that the European External Action Service, which is under the coordination of the High Representative, 'is actively tracking and exposing disinformation campaigns.'
'We are also promoting digital literacy to help citizens to recognize fake news. And by the way, there is a very interesting thing. The problem is not the young people. The problem is rather the old people who are used to like, 'Oh, it was in the news. That is the truth'. Whereas, I mean, the young people have been educated also from the school to make a difference of different channels. But it's a problem in all age groups, of course,' Kaja Kallas detailed.
She went on to remark that the European Union also has the Digital Services Act (DSA) 'that mandates tech platforms to really take action against illegal content of this information.'
'So, I mean, the Digital Services Act is there, it needs to be used as well, the procedures are ongoing, but I also feel that we need to move faster to make a clear point why we have these rules in place, and why we have them is to really protect our democracy which is more under attack all the time,' concluded the EU's top diplomat. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Mariana Ionescu; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)
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