Amid growing concern about the insidious effects of disinformation from Russia, the prime ministers of eight European countries – including Ukraine, Moldova and Poland – signed on an open letter asked executives of major social media companies to take more active steps to prevent the spread of false news on their platforms.
The letter was released on Wednesday called on leaders of companies including Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to act “against misinformation that undermines our peace and stability” and stamp out efforts on the platform their “undermines our support for Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s war of aggression.”
The letter reads: “Technological platforms like yours have become virtual battlegrounds, and hostile foreign powers are using them to spread false stories that contradict reporting from news outlets that rely on them. truth. “Paid advertising and artificial amplification on Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, are often used to call out social unrest, bring violence to the streets, and destabilize the government.”
The Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia also signed the petition, which coincided with the petition. Summit for Democracy hosted by the White House in Washington. The letter was addressed to executives “of Big Tech”.
National leaders ask tech companies to devote more resources to responding to false stories; tuning algorithms to prioritize accuracy and fidelity over interactivity; and clearly marked deepfakes and automated posts, including things created by artificial intelligence. They also called for more coordinated government regulation and better self-regulation by tech companies.
The letter was led by Moldova, a small country located between Romania and Ukraine, whose government says it has been the target of disinformation from Russia for supporting Kiev.
President Maia Sandu of Moldova last month accused Russia of inciting violence and trying to overthrow her governmentpartly as a way of preventing her country from joining the European Union.
Moldova is the home of Transnistria, a self-declared republic controlled by Russian-backed separatists. In February, fake documents purportedly suggesting that the president was conspiring with Ukrainian forces to invade Transnistria was spread on Twitter and on the social messaging app Telegram.
Cristina Gherasimov, an adviser on foreign policy and European integration to Moldova’s president, said in an email that the “very serious” disinformation problem in Central and Eastern Europe has prompted leaders to come forward letter, will be Posting on government websites on Wednesday.
Smaller states in the vicinity of Ukraine “are fighting hard to stop the impact of misinformation on their societies,” she wrote in the email.
The letter was signed by Prime Ministers Dorin Recean of Moldova, Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic, Eduard Heger of Slovakia, Kaja Kallas of Estonia, Krisjanis Karins of Latvia, Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland, Ingrida Simonyte of Lithuania and Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine. .
