EU Parliamentary Elections: Europe dials up pressure on tech giants over election security

 The European Union has announced a package of measures intended to step up efforts and pressure on tech giants to combat democracy-denting disinformation ahead of the EU parliament elections next May.

The European Commission Action Plan, which was presented at a press briefing earlier today, has four areas of focus: 1) Improving detection of disinformation; 2) Greater co-ordination across EU Member States, including by sharing alerts about threats; 3) Increased pressure on online platforms, including to increase transparency around political ads and purge fake accounts; and 4) raising awareness and critical thinking among EU citizens.

The Commission says 67% of EU citizens are worried about their personal data being used for political targeting, and 80% want improved transparency around how much political parties spend to run campaigns on social media.

Note EU-Digest: Google, Facebook and Twitter will be required to give monthly updates to the EU on tackling fake news from Russia in the lead-up to the 2019 EU elections, European regulators said Wednesday.

Read more at: Europe dials up pressure on tech giants over election security | TechCrunch