During a public hearing of the Special Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic, MEPs discuss about how to tackle misleading and false information, especially on social media, the impact of conspiracy theories on vaccine hesitancy, the role of online platforms and traditional media outlets in spreading awareness but also misinformation and disinformation around the pandemic. Extracts from the public hearing.

Brussels

statement

public hearing

VAN BREMPT, Kathleen (S&D, BE)

fight against hate speech, populism, and fake news on social media (T)

GLUCKSMANN, Raphaël (S&D, FR)

KYMPOUROPOULOS, Stelios (EPP, EL)

CERDAS, Sara (S&D, PT)

PAULUS, Jutta (Greens/EFA, DE)

EU's response to covid-19 (T)

Special Committee COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned and recommendations for the future

The impact of disinformation, misinformation and propaganda on democracy during the pandemic: extracts from the public hearing - EP Special Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic

Title: The impact of disinformation, misinformation and propaganda on democracy during the pandemic: extracts - EP Special Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic (I-236519)

Arrival of Kathleen VAN BREMPT (S&amp;D, BE), Chair of COVI Special Committee (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Raphael GLUCKSMANN (S&amp;D, FR), INGE 2 Committe Chair, As legislator, we should not try to forbid opinions. What we should do for sure, is to make sure that people can form their own opinion without being subject to foreign interference and foreign regime, autocratic ones, not allowing any form of dissent in their own countries in order to actually make our democracy dysfunctional. And that's what we have witnessed during the pandemia. What we have witnessed is an effort to spread lies in our big debate, on the pandemia self, where it came from, and also on the way to treat it and to promote vaccination under the vaccination.

SOUNDBITE (English), Raphael GLUCKSMANN (S&amp;D, FR), INGE 2 Committe Chair, On the side you had cyberattacks on the European agents and medication, you had cyber attacks against hospitals. So clearly the objective was, on the top of the crisis that our European democracies were facing, to make us dysfunctional.

SOUNDBITE (English), Raphael GLUCKSMANN (S&amp;D, FR), INGE 2 Committe Chair, Every single event was used in order to actually make us believe that democracy is not working and that our institutions are to be blamed for whatever happens in our societies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Edward LUCAS, Journalist and Writer, It should come as no surprise to people on the committee that Russia disrupts and subverts the information system of the countries it targets. It's also worth noting that China has a sharp power strategy that also involves weaponizing information, collaborating, subverting mainstream media outlets, but also trying to gain influence over the dissemination infrastructure to things like TikTok or WeChat information platforms, which impossible to say something that the Chinese Communist Party doesn't like.

SOUNDBITE (English), Edward LUCAS, Journalist and Writer, You need to bake in media literacy into education system. But don't. And you start with children, but don't stop there. It's about everything that you do in the public messaging space is to build up people's mental and cultural muscles so they can see when they're being lied to, when they're being persuaded, when they're being misled, and they can react accordingly.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stelios KYMPOUROPOULOS (EPP, EL), What was the main factors leading to the increase in trust in media and social institutions? Secondly, how difficult was the uncertainty about the pandemic? And finally, what's the risk sharing of information?

SOUNDBITE (English), Sara CERDAS (S&amp;D, PT), I'm a medical doctor in the public health field and what I saw in the pandemic and whenever every media came to me with a microphone, they were waiting for me to give them any juicy parts and they were not, let's say, interested in the message, the public health message I was trying to convey as a professional. So my question here is how can we overcome this part where the media itself, it's so it's looking for the more juicy parts and not the message that doesn't get more clicks.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jutta PAULUS (Greens/EFA, DE), We were not trained how to talk to patients. We will not trained how to bring cross messages that were actually important for patients health. At least we were not trained at university. I mean, of course I did do some training, but that was well, I was already on the job because I wanted to do it. I wanted to learn how to communicate best with my patients in order to make sure that they do the compliance to the medicines which were prescribed to them or also to whatever else would be important for their health. So I think that's one of the issues that usually the health care professionals are not experts in communication.

The impact of disinformation, misinformation and propaganda on democracy during the pandemic: extracts from the public hearing - EP Special Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic

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