A platform to report fake news and a stamp to identify videos deepfake. These would be some of the measures that the ruling party of France would like to implement to counter the spread of disinformation, which risks influencing the electoral campaign of the next presidential elections, scheduled for April 2022. The measure is deemed necessary by the party’s exponents considering the recent history of the country and the birth of various movements that have put society in turmoil in recent years, including the Yellow Vests. In a climate of generalized tension, fake news is like fuel on the fire, as well as being a threat to the president’s party which risks seeing many votes blown. According to a poll commissioned by the same party, 83% of French people think that i social media are the channel in which more disinformation circulates, but at the same time 50% of the same sample admits that they will let their electoral choice be influenced by the news circulating on these platforms. A worrying observation, also in light of the fact that the gap between Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the polls would be narrowing more and more.
The weapons that the party would like to unleash in this battle are manifold. First of all, the aim is to create a “fake news beacon”, a platform on which citizens can report fake news. A second tool is a stamp that allows you to identify “deepfakes”, counterfeit videos, indistinguishable to the naked eye from authentic ones, which reproduce the voice and face of public figures. In addition, the request, addressed to the platforms, to limit the virality of harmful content and to draw up a “black list” of sites that disseminate false information will be pursued. Another proposal concerns the electoral period: at this stage the algorithms should be recalibrated, in order to break the vicious circle that tends to always offer users the same kind of content, in order to ensure citizens the pluralism of ideas. Even the electoral campaign made on social it should be regulated in such a way as to require platforms to prefer content from reliable sources.
Another area of intervention concerns cyber vulnerability. To avoid the mistakes of 2017, when the current president’s election campaign was hacked by criminals close to Russia, the party will run causal tests on its systems to detect any internal flaws. Cyber attacks are another Achilles’ heel. According to party representatives, the problem should be tackled at the European level with the creation of a mutual support mechanism between member states, with a dedicated fund and a European international cyber police force.
Foreign funding to parties should also be limited, for example by requiring political forces to report when they are approached by a foreign power in order to provide electoral assistance. Donations in cryptocurrencies, which make it difficult to track money, should also be banned.
The information, executives note The republic on the march, has “become a weapon in a real war of conditioning and destabilization”. And in this fight, “the advantage clearly goes to those who distribute disinformation, since fake news spreads on Twitter six times faster than real ones.” An alarming fact that risks undermining the democratic confrontation.