All posts by : Claire Pershan

Politico’s Mark Scott investiated the Brussels news outlet EU Reporter, whose “blend of corporate press releases, original news and paid-for content makes it impossible for readers to determine who’s behind the coverage.”

Last Wednesday, the EU DisinfoLab published an Open Letter calling on EU policy-makers to amend the draft EU Digital Services Act (DSA) to tackle disinformation head-on, ensure stronger measures on platform accountability and more democratic oversight over our online environment.

Facebook delayed publishing a Q1 report on widely viewed content for fear of backlash as the most popular article on the platform between January and March cast doubt on the Covid-19 vaccine.

Last week Facebook fully disabled the accounts of New York University researchers studying political ads, along with the apps, pages and platform access associated with the research observatory, which seeks to oversee and supplement Facebook’s ad library.

ICYMI. On July 18, Forbidden Stories and a consortium of 16 news outlets published the findings of an investigation into the use of the cyber-surveillance tool Pegasus, purchased from the Israeli security company NSO Group by governments to monitor persons of interest.

The EU DisinfoLab is happy to be one of the co-founders of the European Digital Media Observatory for Belgium and Luxembourg (EDMO BELUX), a Belgian and Luxembourgish hub for research on digital media and disinformation.

Fake Reviews on Amazon. A recent Amazon blog post attributes the company’s long-standing problem of fake product reviews to “bad actors attempting to solicit fake reviews outside Amazon, particularly via social media services.”

EU DisinfoLab’s CIB Detection Tree is Growing: The Impact Assessment

In a report released on Thursday, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) assessed the implementation of the EU’s disinformation action plan presented in December 2018, including the Code of Practice, which it finds “fell short of its goal”.

Last Wednesday, the European Commission issued a Guidance document designed to improve the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation, the voluntary self-regulation programme established in 2018, to which Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok, and a handful of other platforms and trade associations are signatories.