Final report of the High Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation
13 March 2018
Background
The EU Commission undertook a series of activities to counter Fake News and Online Disinformation.
First, it launched a public consultation from 13 November 2017 to 23 February 2018, on the issue to which EBLIDA answered in February. Read the full EBLIDA’s response on the public consultation on Fake News and Disinformation [PDF].
On 12 January 2018, the EU Commission announced the appointment of a new High Level Group (HLEG) on fake news and online disinformation composed of 39 experts that are representatives of the civil society, social media platforms, news media organisations, journalists and academia.
Chaired by Professor dr. Madeleine de Cock Buning, the HLEG has now produced a report where
HLEG Report
[excerpt from the dedicated Commission webpage]
The HLEG advises the Commission against simplistic solutions. Any form of censorship either public or private should clearly be avoided. The HLEG's recommendations aim instead to provide short-term responses to the most pressing problems, longer-term responses to increase societal resilience to disinformation, and a framework for ensuring that the effectiveness of these responses is continuously evaluated, while new evidence-based responses are developed.
The multi-dimensional approach recommended by the HLEG is based on a number of interconnected and mutually reinforcing responses. These responses rest on five pillars designed to:
- enhance transparency of online news, involving an adequate and privacy-compliant sharing of data about the systems that enable their circulation online;
- promote media and information literacy to counter disinformation and help users navigate the digital media environment;
- develop tools for empowering users and journalists to tackle disinformation and foster a positive engagement with fast-evolving information technologies;
- safeguard the diversity and sustainability of the European news media ecosystem, and
- promote continued research on the impact of disinformation in Europe to evaluate the measures taken by different actors and constantly adjust the necessary responses.
The report highlights that libraries can play a role in literacy competence, especially in media and information literacy. Library can also engage with the aim of integrating critical media literacy into the core literacies guaranteed to all schoolchildren in Europe [...].
The report is now available.
More information here.
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