the government wants to protect this election from disinformation and foreign digital interference

The Ministry of Europe presents on Wednesday its system to combat disinformation and foreign digital interference which could threaten the European elections on June 9. It is aimed in particular at social media platforms.

Less than 50 days before the European elections, the Minister for Europe Jean-Noël Barrot will call on the platforms, types X – the former Twitter – or Meta, owner of Facebook, to commit to really play their role against disinformation. He must present his measures to fight against disinformation on Wednesday, April 24. The government wants social networks “deviralize”that is to say restrict the distribution, or even quickly delete false content concerning the campaign.

One moment should be particularly monitored: the reserve period, which begins Friday evening at midnight, which will precede the vote. This moment prohibits candidates from any expression and therefore any response to fake news that concerns them.

The very sensitive last hours before the vote

Jean-Noël Barrot indeed has an obsession: avoiding a Slovak-style scenario. It must be said that last September, during the elections in Slovakia, the progressive candidate was the victim of a deep fake, an audio montage produced using artificial intelligence, posted on Facebook two days before the vote and went viral. In this fake conversation, we hear the candidate explain that he is going to rig the results. Difficult to precisely quantify the impact on votes, the fact remains that this candidate lost, even though the polls showed him to be the winner.

According to the government, France has reason to worry about possible deformation maneuvers or foreign digital interference. The government has in fact recorded information attacks, often coming from Russia, in recent weeks.

Protean attacks recently recorded

For example, there was a fake army recruitment site, to encourage 200,000 French people to enlist in Ukraine, or a video falsely attributed to RFI radio, evoking a tuberculosis epidemic caused by Ukrainian soldiers in French hospitals.

Last week, it was PS candidate Raphaël Glucksmann who was the victim of misinformation relayed by accounts linked to China. So much fake news likely to disrupt the elections. The Minister for Europe, who is receiving his German and Polish counterparts on Sunday and Monday for further coordination, will also reveal other recent attacks at that time. A Renaissance framework states: “We know that the cyber risk will be maximum in the final stretch of the campaign.”