Reports and Studies about Social media and networks, innovation and policy

In its Communication "Tackling online Disinformation", the Commission puts forward an action plan and self-regulatory tools to tackle the spread and impact of online disinformation in Europe and ensure the protection of European values and democratic systems. One of the actions is to convene a Multistakeholder Forum on disinformation to develop a Code of Practice to tackle online disinformation by July 2018. The Forum met on the 29 May.

The Media Literacy Expert Group met on June 15, 2018 in Brussels. Attendance was by invitation only. The agenda, presentations and minutes from this meeting are now available.

The public consultation took place between 13 November 2017 and 23 February 2018. The aim of the consultation was to help assess the effectiveness of current actions by market players and other stakeholders, the need for scaling them up and introducing new actions to address different types of fake news.

In January 2018, the European Commission set up a high-level group of experts ("the HLEG") to advise on policy initiatives to counter fake news and disinformation spread online. The main deliverable of the HLEG was a report designed to review best practices in the light of fundamental principles, and suitable responses stemming from such principles.

The public consultation took place between 13 November 2017 and 23 February 2018. The aim of the consultation was to help assess the effectiveness of current actions by market players and other stakeholders, the need for scaling them up and introducing new actions to address different types of fake news.

The Eurobarometer survey was conducted via telephone interviews early February in all EU Member States. Over 26.000 citizens were interviewed about their perception of fake news and their trust in news media sources. The findings show a clear concern for the spread of disinformation online in Europe.

The Commission invited experts to discuss future actions to tackle the spread of fake news and disinformation online. The recordings and presentations are now available.

The work of the High-Level Expert Group will contribute to the development of an EU-level strategy on how to tackle the spreading of fake news and disinformation, to be presented in spring 2018. The group gathers 40 representatives of social media platforms and media organisations and of citizens, civil society organisation and experts such as journalists and academia.

The European Commission organised a multi-stakeholder conference on Fake News to define the boundaries of the fake news phenomenon, assess the effectiveness of the solutions already put in place by social media platforms and to agree on key principles for further action. The recordings are now available.