Social networks, sources of handling in the campaign. How misinformation can be fought on Tiktok, Facebook or X | Analysis

A new draft law proposes to eliminate the manipulative content from the online social media platforms. The initiative comes after an unprecedented measure taken by the Constitutional court in Romania, the annulment of the presidential election as a result of suspicions of manipulation of the electorate through social networks.

Initiative is in emergency procedure in parliament photo shutterstock

A recently submitted legislative initiative proposes several measures to protect the digital space in the face of misinformation and harmful content. The head of the Information and Communications Technology Commission, Radu Miruță, initiator of the project, transmitted: “It is time for Romania to be an example of good practices regarding the elimination of illegal content and limiting the false content from social networks. (…) Because our choices have been canceled, among others, precisely because of toxicity in the online environment. to another person”.

To whom the responsibility from the online environment has

In fact, Romania adopted Law no. 50/2024 regarding the Regulation for digital services (DSA). ANCOM announced, however, since then, that although he is the coordinator of digital services, he cannot rule on the legality of the online content outside his sphere of competence and the competent institutions must be notified, which then emit action decisions to the big online platforms.

Specifically, according to recent details, ANCOM can only be pronounced in situations in which it is designated by the legal norms, in force, expressly as relevant authority. Therefore, the authorities who have skills in the offline environment in a particular field have the same skills in the online environment.

In the context of the cancellation of the elections, Radu Miruță also accused of “ANCOM, the main responsible for the application of the European DSA regulation, failed again in protecting citizens against digital manipulation in the electoral context. ” According to the deputy, “Romania remains blocked in bureaucratic procedures”.

What the initiative provides

The last few days have also brought on heated debates on the BEC decisions to remove several political tension posts. BEC stated that “A correct electoral process implies, among other things, a fair balance between freedom of expression, including the right of a person to have political opinions, and guarantee that the information and messages promoted are confined to the desire to prevent the actions of manipulating and misinforming the voters ”.

Deputy Radu Miriuțǎ explained for “Adevărul” that it is necessary for the platforms to adapt their algorithms for the automatic elimination of some posts and not manually, as is the case now. “It is a joke that is now. It cannot be for three institutions to debate two days on a link, which I think it finally should be eliminated, during which time it has reached a thousand views. he pointed out.

“The philosophy of the project is that for illegal content, and what is illegal is already classified (…) This is to be taken down. For false content, on topics of major interest, but not necessarily which can be classified as illegal, the post should not be lowered and have two measures. People (…) and how this kind of situation is identified, only nobody forces a measure ”the deputy explained.

The initiative proposes that the online platforms are obliged to eliminate the illegal content within a maximum of 15 minutes from the publication, using artificial intelligence algorithms. The regulation concerns the posts that contain incitement to hatred and violence or mislead on topics of national interest. Also, their distribution would be limited to a maximum of 150 users.

The project also provides for sanctioning the platforms if the rules are not respected. Thus, non -observance of obligations will attract fines of 1% of the turnover, applied by ANCOM.

Radu Miruță argues that at present the algorithms do not work in all situations, so that around 10-20 situations remain in which they fail to identify correctly.

At European level, the European Commission announced that it will hire new specialists to support the Digital Services Act application, wanting to reach 200 employees in the field.

New threats on the threshold of election

After the annulment of last year's elections, in the context of desecretized documents attesting that one of the presidential candidates and a party who was applying for parliamentary (no – Călin Georgescu and Pot) would have been favored on the Tiktok network, Romania is facing a new wave of suspicions. Even on the verge of election, new data published by Tiktok shows that Gold and Călin Georgescu have benefited from a network of over 27,000 fake accounts in last year's election campaign.

Moreover, according to a hotnews investigation, lately the number of tiktok accounts that do pro-vladimir Putin and pro-Russia has exploded. So far several thousand such accounts have been identified. According to the investigation, all these are alleged by Vladimir Putin, having messages such as: “How many of you do you want as President of Romania?” / “Romania is a dictatorial state that follows the orders of the European Union. I will have to release them” / “If Russia attacks Europe, I will magnify for Russia” or “If Russia attacks Europe, I will magnify for Russia.”

Also, some of the accounts would be among the ones that last year and earlier this year made the massive pro-Călin Georgescu.

The need for regulation

Experts point out that there is no “sMagic Oluts ” in the field and that there should be a wide public consultation. “The major dilemma we have is always related to the content analysis. All the time some will say that this is misinformation, this is not misinformation. The narratives change all the time and then we should have these constant monitoring all the time and I think this is a bit difficult to do, if not impossible,” explained Ciprian Cucu, an expert in misinformation, for “Adevărul”.

The expert in combating misinformation reminded of a study that showed in 2021 that only 12 profiles were guilty of the propagation of most misinformations regarding vaccination: “We are talking about the so-called Super Spreaders. And I think there is a bit of work, rather in running any citizen who has an opinion and may be wrong, maybe, maybe, sure, may be in various situations, but I think it's much harder to manage in this way. “

“Where I press is in this area of ​​operationalization, (…) My impression is that we do the same, we cover ourselves with papers, with plans, but we do not do things, that is, we have them there, everything is very good, but it does not happen after that great thing.said Ciprian Cucu.

“The chances of initiative can be high, if there is availability from the political class” – Radu Delotte, public communication expert

The expert in public communication Radu Delotte believes that the latest events should motivate politicians to collaborate to find solutions. “I would use this draft law as a starting point in which the political class, and through the political class, refer to the deputies and the senator, so the Parliament, to let a campaign of “CrowdSouring”. I think this is the best idea, in which, in fact, let the population come up with the best solution and the best formula ”said the communication expert.

Radu Delotte pointed out that a solution can come through a type of content characterization, in the context of “Never prohibition does not lead to a good thing. Coercion of this type will not stop the phenomenon. Rather, it improves it in the short term and so on. ”

However, the communication expert points out that politicians ignore this area, some of them not even knowing what to post on their promotion pages. Also, as the parliamentary architecture shows today, “The political chances are low “, but” the chances of initiative can be high, if there is availability from the political class “.

“It is a very good moment and if I learned something from the elections this autumn, it is that the Parliament, the mandate of this Parliament, next to the chronic issues that the company has, which it has to sol Radu Delotte explained.

The initiative against Deepfake forgotten by the chosen

The elected officials have tried in the past to focus on the online environment. A draft law that was in attention to combat the Deepfake phenomenon remained stuck in the Parliament, although it has passed in just two months the first room notified. The initiative was deposited from 2023 and came at that time in the context of a wave of videos made with the help of artificial intelligence (IA).

The project was sent back to the commissions in February 2024, after being introduced on the agenda of several plenary sessions. The Legal Commission gave a favorable opinion only in October 2024, and since then nothing happened. Now it seems that the parliamentarians have forgotten about it.

In the case of the USR initiative, the emergency procedure was approved, so the adoption should come in maximum 30 days.

In the context of the current elections, following a meeting with the responsible institutions, the interim president Ilie Bolojan announced the establishment of a working group to ensure a good election.