Fighting fake information in Europe

On 13 November the EJN’s Director Aidan White took part in an open public consultation on fake news organised by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology.

Ahead of the — #tacklefakenews — meeting, Aidan penned this blog on how democracy is being threatened by the business models of digital age.

Background: The European Commission President Juncker took the issue of fake information online up in his State of the Union speech and referred to it in his letter of Intent to the European Parliament. Juncker has requested that the new Commissioner of the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect) Mariya Gabriel address the problem of fake information.

To respond to his call, DG Connect are organising a series of meetings as well as an open public consultation on fake news. The first of these meetings was held on 13-14 November in Brussels.