A meeting on combating disinformation and securing a correct information climate amid the presidential election in May took place on Monday at Government House.
The event was organised by the National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), as coordinator of digital services in Romania, and brought together representatives of national authorities, academia, civil society, the European Commission and large online platforms.
The central theme of the debates was the application of the European Digital Services Regulation (DSA), with the obligations arising from it for very large online search platforms and engines, before and during the presidential election in Romania.
The capacity and speed of reaction of large search engines and online platforms in cases of violation of the DSA, the available reporting channels, the access of non-governmental organisations to the platforms' data, the ways of identifying and combating electoral disinformation were addressed.
The participants highlighted the current threats to information integrity, including the risks generated by the spread of manipulative content or fake news, as well as by cyber-attacks aimed at influencing the electoral process. The need to strengthen collaboration among the relevant national authorities, non-state actors and digital platforms in order to quickly identify and counter disinformation campaigns was highlighted.
Officials from the European Commission, the Romanian government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Directorate of Cyber Security, the Standing Electoral Authorities, the National Audiovisual Council were present at the discussions, along with the ANCOM management; officials of the major social media platforms - TikTok, Google, Meta and X; as well as representatives of academia and civil society - the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, Save the Children Romania, Expert Forum, Active Watch, Funky Citizens, Association for Technology and Internet and SNSPA.
The event at the Government House is said to mark a new step in the official efforts to ensure the transparency and fairness of the electoral process through a collaborative approach designed to protect citizens' right to correct information.
The government of Romania remains committed to supporting a secure and balanced information ecosystem, in which citizens can access accurate information in order to make informed decisions. Facilitating today's meeting was an important step towards creating an effective framework for collaboration between public institutions, academia, civil society and digital platforms. Another desire of the government along the same lines, included in the National Strategy for Strategic Communication and Combatting Disinformation, is the long-term increase of citizens' resilience in the face of information manipulation.
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