France, Germany and others ask the EU committee to protect the elections from foreign interference

France, Germany and 10 other countries of the European Union want the European Commission to use its powers pursuant to the digital services law to protect the integrity of the European elections from foreign interference, according to a letter signed by the 12 countries.

In the letter, the ministers of European affairs of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Cypria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and Spain have asked the Commission to create an EU organ dedicated to the manipulation of the struggle and interference of foreign information.

“The growing threats of foreign interference and disturbing interventions in public debates during important electoral events represent a direct challenge for our stability and sovereignty”, says the letter, seen by Reuters.

“Recent accidents require urgent and united action to defend the next EU elections,” he added.

EU diplomats said that the letter referred to interference mainly from Russia and China, but also to other cases.

Germany will have the first elections on February 23 and will create a Task Force to prevent any attempt at a foreign state from influencing the vote after warning spy and sabotage sponsored by Russia.

Last week, Elon Musk, owner of the Social Network Platform X, participated in the event of the far -right AFD election campaign to support the party for the second time in a few weeks.

In December, the Commission opened an investigation against the Chinese bytedance social media company Tiktok, with suspicion of not having had limited electoral interference in the Romanian presidential vote in November.

Government officials of Poland, who have presidential elections in May, warned that Russia was recruiting Poles to influence the elections.

“We ask the Commission to take the command, totally exploiting the powers granted by the law on digital services (DSA),” says the letter.

According to DSA, the main internet platforms such as X, Facebook, Tiktok and others should moderate and remove harmful content such as hatred, racism or xenophobia. Otherwise, the Commission can impose fines of up to 6% of its annual world revenues.

Source: Terra

Rose

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