EU Seeks to Punish Online Lies in Disinformation Crackdown
- Plans come after Russia, China spread virus falsehoods
- New measures would complement EU cyber sanctions regime
The European Union is weighing up how to sanction the perpetrators of online disinformation amid suspicions of Chinese and Russian involvement in lies spewed out on internet platforms about Covid-19.
As part of its Democracy Action Plan published Thursday, the European Commission said it would explore how to “impose costs on the perpetrators” of harmful disinformation campaigns in the EU. Such campaigns involve the spreading of falsehoods but also other manipulative tactics such as fake profiles to artificially amplify narratives, the EU said.
In particular, the EU said it was considering measures such as “publicly identifying commonly used techniques to render them operationally unusable” or imposing sanctions following repeated offences.
The plans come after a report by the EU’s foreign service department in May showed how Russian and Chinese media reports sought to create doubts around China’s role in the Covid-19 outbreak. Russians have also been accused of meddling in the 2016 Brexit vote.
China, Russia Are Spreading Virus Misinformation, EU Says