Historically, there are five ways to deal with
disinformation, including FIMI: strategic communication, debunking (setting the
record straight), prebunking (preparing potential recipients proactively for
disinformation content and processes), denial of service (censuring,
de-platforming, demonetizing), and interactionist (providing dialogues). (DROG, DIM)
Denial of service
When it comes to illegal FIMI content, a denial of service response is obligatory: the content must be removed. Unfortunately, it is not always clear whether content is illegal. Therefore, it might be tempting to err on the safe side and resort to a denial of service response when encountering any disinformation content.
The European Regulation that covers the subject, the Digital Services Act (DSA), advises us against such a cautious approach. It tells us to act in good faith instead: “The condition of acting in good faith and in a diligent manner should include /.../ providing the necessary safeguards against unjustified removal of legal content, in accordance with the objective and requirements of this Regulation.” (Recital 26, DSA).
Still, acting in good faith is not enough to prevent the unjust removal of legal content. When the content is considered by a hosting service to be “incompatible with its terms and conditions” (Art. 3(t); art. 17, DSA), the service may remove it. Thus, again, hosting services might be tempted to err on the safe side and interpret their terms and conditions too cautiously.
Going beyond denial of service
According to the partners in the SAUFEX project, legal FIMI content can be effectively addressed without having to resort to censorship, thus enhancing the overall resilience of member states against FIMI while preserving freedom of expression. Therefore, the project is to support the main institution that can steer platforms and hosting services away from taking a too cautious approach, the Digital Services Coordinators (DSC) who are nationally responsible for enforcing the DSA.
The support to the DSC is to be provided by a new institution initiated by the SAUFEX project, the Resilience Council. The Resilience Council (RC) is a governmental body consisting of representatives of civil society. It will be erected to support the DSC with knowledge of all things FIMI. With the help of the RC, the DSC can pro-actively promote an approach based on good faith and a broad interpretation of what content is legal. The DSC can also react to the erroneous removal of content by ordering to restore the content (Recital 39, DSA). And, if this would turn out to be insufficient, the RC can also support lodging complaints to platforms and hosting services (Art. 20(1)a, DSA).
This blog
The focus of this blog will be on exploring the Resilience Council as a new institution. It will follow its first baby steps in Poland and will also delve into themes surrounding it. It will be an interesting ride.
