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Stopping disinformation in its tracks before it goes viral is easier than fighting it later on, head of the Emergency Situations Department (DSU) Raed Arafat told a news conference at the Victoria Palace of Government on Monday.
"There have been no censorship plans, of shutting down media or social media entities or so on. (...) We see very well what disinformation can do and the effects of deceptive news that is viral on social media. If you restrain it in an early stage, you can fight it with better success than when it has gone viral and the world doesn't care anymore what you write or what you respond," said Arafat.
He added that monitoring and responding to certain inaccurate, distorted, deliberately misinforming content is a duty of the state, which is why a platform has been set up to address these issues.
"There are European directives in this regard. There are European rules on this subject. The fact that a media entity has tossed a 'fake' piece of news which we want to block has been interpreted as foreshadowing censorship and a public outcry has started on this subject. Let someone show me where is it written that we are going to shut someone down. We don't even have the necessary tools at hand. The only time you can do this is during the state of emergency, but we are out of it, we don't plan on declaring it and have no instruments in this regard," Arafat said.
Government spokesman Dan Carbunaru said that it's not for the Executive to regulate "the types of truths circulating in the public space", but it is its role and the responsibility of Romania's public institutions to properly inform the public opinion and possibly do so in due course. "We have seen what happened in the case of the rising fuel prices. We have also seen what happened in the case of the so-called edible oil crisis," Carbunaru said.
He added that in order to prevent an outbreak of panic following the spread of false information, the authorities must intervene quickly, with complete and credible information, together with those who are affected in one way or another.
Raed Arafat also said that at this moment disinformation can be a weapon in the hands of others, and must be therefore actively fought.
