The European Commission has announced plans to regulate advertising policy, clarifying the responsibilities of online platforms, advertisers and political advisors.
Presented today, the action plan? of the European Union and has three main pillars: promoting free and fair elections, strengthening media freedom, pluralism and tackling misinformations.
“With the digital revolution being in development, citizens should be able to make choices and opinions should be able to be expressed freely", says European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"Fact must be distinguished from fiction and a free media and civil society should be able to engage in an open debate, free from malign interferencefundamentals. The EU is therefore taking action to make our EU democracies more resilient.”
Specific obligations could be imposed on online brokers and advertising service providers, making records, disclosure requirements, transparency of prices paid and targeting criteria necessary.
However, this will be a slow process, and every change in law could take years before it takes effect.
There are also plans to improve the EU's ability to deal with foreign interference, including the ability to impose costs on perpetrators. The Commission will issue guidelines to strengthen the code of conduct on disinformation next spring and create a stronger framework for monitoring applicationhis.
