Gary Machado, Managing Director of EU DisinfoLab, stated that the recent Doppelganger operation they exposed mainly consisted of Russian actors cloning media websites and buying many domain names echoing real ones to spread anti-Ukraine narratives. The report presented a series of policy recommendations on Internet domain names and the need to enforce existing laws like GDPR and trademark laws.
The EU and its Member States can adopt and enforce laws that make it harder and more expensive for malicious actors to spread disinformation and regulations that force platforms to mitigate this risk. They can create a favorable environment for researchers, civil society, and journalists who expose disinformation and foreign interference.
The assessment is that only using ready-made slogans on platforms accountability hides the fact that the EU and its Member States are not doing enough to tackle disinformation and to support civil society in other key areas. A non-exhaustive list of recommendations was given regarding (1) Better regulation of the domain name industry, (2) EU funding, (3) Sanctions, (4) GDPR, (5) Cybersecurity, (6) Abuse of Freedom of Information Requests (FOIR), (7) Abuse of the judiciary system, AND (7) Speaking to platforms’ experts.
It is time to go beyond ready-made slogans and to work concretely on tackling the issues described in this contribution if the EU and its Member States wish to see a dynamic civil society fighting disinformation.
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