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Resolution 2326 (2020)
Democracy hacked? How to respond?
1. The Parliamentary Assembly is concerned
about the scale of information pollution in a digitally connected
and increasingly polarised world, the spread of disinformation campaigns
aimed at shaping public opinion, trends of foreign electoral interference
and manipulation, as well as abusive behaviour and the intensification
of hate speech on the internet and social media. These all represent
a challenge for democracy, and in particular for the electoral processes
throughout Council of Europe member States, affecting the right to
freedom of expression, including the right to receive information,
and the right to free elections.
2. As regards cyberattacks, the Assembly recalls the concerns
raised in Resolution
2217 (2018) and Recommendation
2130 (2018) on legal challenges related to hybrid war
and human rights obligations, in particular with regard to numerous
cases of mass disinformation campaigns intended to undermine security, public
order and peaceful democratic processes, and to the need to develop
tools to protect democracy from “information weapons”.
3. As the internet and social media seep into ever more aspects
of the political landscape, the Assembly points to the need to improve
the internet’s content and architecture, build up the resilience
of Europe’s democratic systems and societies, counter disinformation,
invest in quality journalism and preserve freedom of expression
and media and political pluralism, especially in the context of
elections.
4. The Assembly takes the view that data-driven electoral campaigning
on social media, based on segmentation and profiling of users, especially
“dark advertising” on platforms targeting potential voters, is a growing
phenomenon which must be better regulated in order to ensure transparency
and data protection, and build public trust. In particular, the
Assembly:
4.1. praises the work
that has been done by the Council of Europe on personal data protection
and electoral rights, especially the Convention
for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing
of Personal Data (ETS No. 108, Convention 108) and its
relevance with regard to electoral rights, and welcomes other soft
law instruments addressing different aspects of privacy and personal data
protection in the context of the information society, including
in social networks;
4.2. welcomes the adoption of the Protocol amending the Convention
for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing
of Personal Data (CETS No. 223), which modernises the convention
and addresses emerging challenges resulting from the use of new
information and communication technologies, and supports the call
of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy,
Mr Joseph Cannataci, to all United Nations member States to accede
to Convention 108, where their legislation and practice comply with
the provisions of the convention;
4.3. supports the future work of the Committee of Convention
108 on the use of personal data in elections and their possible
misuse in a political context;
4.4. invites Council of Europe member States that have not
already done so to sign and/or ratify and fully implement the Council
of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (ETS No. 185) and its Additional Protocol
concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic
nature committed through computer systems (ETS No. 189).
5. To address disinformation challenges in the context of democratic
elections, governments of Council of Europe member States need to:
5.1. recognise the transnational
nature of the problem and enhance co-operation with internet intermediaries
and social media operators, whose commercial interests tend to collide
with human rights and political rights, for instance the principle
of electoral equity, in line with the Committee of Ministers Recommendation
CM/Rec(2018)2 on the roles and responsibilities of internet
intermediaries;
5.2. enable voters to receive trustworthy information and become
more informed and engaged, with a view to preserving the exercise
of their right to truly free and fair elections;
5.3. break up the monopoly of technology companies controlling,
to a great extent, citizen’s access to information and data;
5.4. consider updating national legislation in order to counter
disinformation campaigns more effectively.
6. To tackle these challenges, the Assembly calls on Council
of Europe member States to implement a number of strategies from
a European and global perspective and to create a model that includes
co-responsibility and multiple regulatory and conflict-resolution
approaches, in particular by:
6.1. promoting
media education and digital literacy skills to strengthen the legal
and democratic culture of citizens, in line with Resolution 2314 (2019) on
media education in the new media environment, enhance public awareness
of how data are generated and processed, enable voters to evaluate
critically electoral communication and increase society’s resilience
to disinformation;
6.2. encouraging and supporting collaborative fact-checking
initiatives and other improvements of content moderation and curation
systems which are intended to counter the dissemination of deceptive and
misleading information, including through social media, in line
with Resolution 2281
(2019) “Social media: social threads or threats to human
rights?”;
6.3. securing adequate funding to independent public service
media, so that the media can allocate enough resources to innovation
in content, form and technology to foster their role as major players
in countering disinformation and propaganda and as cutting-edge
stakeholders in protecting communication and media ecosystems in
Europe, in line with Resolution
2255 (2019) on public service media in the context of
disinformation and propaganda;
6.4. strengthening transparency in political online advertising,
information distribution, algorithms and business models of platform
operators, in particular by:
6.4.1. guaranteeing, where
political parties and candidates have the right to purchase advertising
space for election purposes, equal treatment in terms of conditions
and rates charged;
6.4.2. developing specific regulatory frameworks for internet
content at election times and including provisions on transparency
in relation to sponsored content on social media, so that the public
is aware of the source that funds electoral advertising or any other
information or opinion, in line with Resolution 2254 (2019) on media
freedom as a condition for democratic elections, and prevent illegal
foreign involvement;
6.5. addressing the implications of the micro-targeting of
political advertisements with a view to promoting a political landscape
which is more accountable and less prone to manipulation;
6.6. supporting researchers’ access to data, including datasets
with deleted accounts and content, with a view to examining the
influence of strategic disinformation on democratic decision making
and on electoral processes, and possibly proposing the setting up
of a European network of researchers in this area;
6.7. considering national and international regulation to share
best practices and increase co-operation among security agencies,
for instance by creating a specific mechanism for monitoring, crisis management
and post-crisis analysis and sharing resources that already exist
in various countries, in line with Recommendation 2144 (2019) on internet
governance and human rights;
6.8. calling on professionals and organisations in the media
sector to develop self-regulation frameworks that contain professional
and ethical standards relating to their coverage of election campaigns,
including enhanced news accuracy and reliability and respect for
human dignity and the principle of non-discrimination, in line with Resolution 2254 (2019);
6.9. initiating judicial reforms and setting up specialised
divisions for judges and prosecutors focusing on disinformation
and hate speech.
7. Furthermore, the Assembly welcomes the European Union’s action
to counter disinformation, address the threats of external intervention
in European elections and ensure greater transparency on paid political advertising
and clearer rules on the financing of European political parties,
as part of the European Union Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy
2020-2024. It calls on the European Union to ensure synergy with
the Council of Europe’s action in those areas and promote further
co-operation with all 47 member States of the Council of Europe.
It also invites the European Commission and the Strategic Communication
Task Forces of the European External Action Service to ensure greater
participation of relevant non-governmental organisations, acting
within the European Union, in the leadership and consultation of
their relevant bodies countering disinformation, in order to better
detect, analyse and expose disinformation. These bodies should work
closely, in a more transparent way, and regularly exchange information
for the sake of the common good.
8. The Assembly also calls on the member States of the European
Union to considerably increase the European Union’s support for
the Strategic Communication Task Forces of the European External
Action Service in order to strengthen the European Union’s capability
to combat disinformation.
9. Finally, the Assembly supports the work of the European Commission
for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission) in its efforts to
prepare a list of principles for the use of digital technologies
in the context of elections and resolves to closely follow this
matter.