European Commission: tech companies must take stricter action against fake news

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, calls on tech companies such as Facebook and Google to take stricter action against fake news. According to him, it is important for these companies to develop a ‘sense of honour’ in this area.

According to Juncker, the ‘credibility of these companies is their greatest asset’. The Luxembourger also reports in the interview that he is aware that the two companies are already taking steps to combat fake news. He says of this ‘we are going to look closely at how that works out.’ Juncker makes the statements in an interview with the German media of the Funke Mediengruppe. The chairman also stated that Europeans are “increasingly sensitive to who is telling the truth and who is not.”

Earlier this month, Věra Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, among other things, also said that she is not satisfied with the way social media companies deal with tackling hate messages on their platforms. Their reactions to that would not be fast enough.

Two parties in the German parliament also announced earlier this month that they want to combat the spread of fake news with legislation. The proposal is to have large platforms such as Facebook set up a fake news hotline where reports can be made 24 hours a day. Within 24 hours, the platforms should also remove the fake news.

Just before christmas responded Pakistan’s defense minister to reports that Israel was threatening nuclear strikes against Pakistan for its role in the conflict in Syria. “Israel forgets that Pakistan also has nuclear weapons,” the minister said. Israel responded to the tweet by stating that the reporting was “completely inaccurate.”

In addition to conflicts between countries, there is also the fear that fake news influences democratic elections. Some experts state that this happened, for example, with the American presidential elections, writes The Washington Post.