Brussels (Brussels Morning) – The National Crisis Center warns of an increase in disinformation on social media in the run-up to the elections. “Enemy regimes want to destabilize our society as much as possible.”
European, federal and regional elections are scheduled for June 9. A high day for democracy, but elections also entail risks. And that is already noticeable. An analysis by the security and intelligence services has shown that disinformation poses a real threat in the run-up to the elections.
How prevalent is false information on social media platforms?
“There are already a lot of false or misleading messages circulating on social media,” explains Laura Demullier, spokeswoman for the National Crisis Center. “Certainly in the context of the European elections, there are large-scale disinformation campaigns. According to various reports, those elections were stolen and could not have been conducted fairly.”
Demullier herself does not want to give an example so as not to reinforce the messages that are doing the rounds, but a brief search on social media shows what she is referring to. Especially on Telegram, we find some posts that call the elections “a sham”, the outcome of which has already been determined in advance.
The focus of the campaign about so-called “fraudulent European elections” was supposed to be on France, but it has already seeped into our country via that route, says Demullier.
Who is behind the dissemination of fraudulent election narratives?
“There are often foreign actors behind this, from enemy regimes. Without putting a name on it. In this way, they want to destabilize our society as much as possible. The EU has always had a fairly stable democracy and they are now trying to overturn it by making it harder and harder for people to distinguish between truth and lies.”
The National Crisis Center also warns against fake news about our federal and regional elections. “The scope of that reporting is a lot smaller, but it is certainly present,” says Demullier. It would mainly be about the election system that is being questioned and polarizing messages that are being sent into the world.
“How do we know for sure that all those messages are quatsch? Our security services are monitoring this very closely,” said Demullier. “To give an example: one of the most important methods to distinguish disinformation campaigns is to monitor suspicious narratives or hashtags. If we notice a very high peak of such a hashtag or narrative in a short period of time, we can assume that bots have been used to spread that information.
What measures are in place to combat fake news about elections?
The National Crisis Center mainly wants to create awareness about the fact that misleading information is circulating. Anyone who uses social media must remain critical. Although in practice this is becoming increasingly complex. Demullier: “We have been seeing disinformation campaigns since the 2016 American elections, but back then it was limited to Facebook and Twitter. One particular narrative was shared on one medium, the other on the second medium.
Why is Telegram considered a particularly risky platform for misinformation?
Telegram in particular poses a danger because there is no content moderation there. Anyone can post whatever they want and it won’t be checked.” To reassure people, the Crisis Center also points out that many precautions are being taken to guarantee the safety and fairness of the elections. For example, the voting computers are extensively tested and secured and the paper ballots also have a number of security measures such as sealing and a watermark.
