Why the Maldita.es Foundation participates in the creation of a new self-regulation code against disinformation in the European Union

For a few weeks now, the Maldita.es Foundation has been part of the group that is preparing the new European Code of Good Practices against Disinformation that should replace the one approved in 2018, a self-regulation code that a good part of the main digital platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter or Microsoft. The European Commission is now committed to strengthening it by adding digital rights organizations and verifiers like us, among others. We want to explain why we have agreed to work on its update and what we hope to achieve with it.

The current code is poor and we believe it can be done better

The most important reason is that the current code is poor. It was interesting as the first experience of self-regulation, but it has fallen short and too vague in many aspects, as detailed in the evaluation that the European Commission itself has made of its effectiveness. We are already engaged in a consultative process on how to strengthen it and we agree with the main areas where the Commission recommends stronger and more specific commitments. Among others:

• Incorporation of new signatories who have an important role in the field of disinformation
• Increased transparency and cooperation, including collaboration commitments with fact-checkers such as Maldita.es for the integration of their contents in different digital services
• Greater commitment to media literacy and warnings to users who have interacted with misleading content
• A general and specific improvement of the code compliance evaluation mechanisms

We believe that this code can play an important role in the fight against disinformation if it truly meets these goals and that is why we will try to ensure that this is the case with our presence in the conversations. However, we are aware that in a self-regulation instrument it is each company that ultimately decides what it is obliged to do, so we cannot be sure that the process will go as we want. If it is disappointing, we reserve the right to leave the table and of course we would tell you.

This Code can become key for future regulation on disinformation and we believe that it is not good for only the platforms to write it

In our opinion, it may be worth the effort, because all indications are that the new European legislation on disinformation on the Internet under discussion, the Digital Services Act (DSA), will only deal with so-called «illegal content» and not with «harmful content. Therefore, self-regulatory tools like this code may be the only way to deal with hoaxes that are not overtly illegal, but extremely harmful. A clear example: those videos watched by thousands and thousands of people in which someone says that the best thing to do against coronavirus is to drink something that looks like bleach.

Furthermore, according to the DSA proposal, this new European Code of Good Practice against Disinformation could be in the nature of mandatory co-regulation for some of the largest digital platforms as part of their risk mitigation responsibility .

We are not the only fact-checkers that participate

Along with Maldita.es, the European verification organizations Pagella Politica (Italy), and Demagog (Poland) have also joined this effort and we believe there will be more in the future. In addition, there are also journalistic organizations such as Reporters Without Borders.

It is for all these reasons that we have decided to declare ourselves as «potential signatories» to the new Code, and thus to join the group that will write its content: although we have limited influence on the rules that digital platforms will accept, we want to be part of the process and to hear what we have learned about misinformation over the years and thanks to your help. We are also very clear that if the process that is now underway does not meet the goals we have set for improving the information ecosystem, we will abandon this collective self-regulatory effort.

We will let you know how it goes.