The Social Communications Regulator (ERC) will have a system in place to identify and report situations of disinformation before the European elections on 9 June.
In a conversation with Lusa, Telmo Gonçalves, a member of the ERC, said that the regulator is collaborating with Labcom, the communications research unit of the Beira University of the Interior in Covilhã (Castelo Branco), to “monitor and identify disinformation activities that appear on digital platforms.” , such as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, related to the European elections, “but having an impact on Portugal.”
According to him, “a warning system will be created that will signal and respond to situations of disinformation.”
Externally, according to Telmo Gonçalves, the ERC is also expected to cooperate with the European Audiovisual Regulators Group (ERGA) and “support the European Commission in identifying situations of disinformation.”
One action is to “develop a publicly accessible database internationally for reporting content as illegal in light of digital services regulation in situations that occur on major search engines or major digital platforms.”
At the same time, public campaigns are being conducted to raise citizen awareness within the framework of media literacy through a public information “point” that “aims to sensitize citizens to the importance of protecting against disinformation” through the cooperation of channels. Portuguese TV channels.
The campaigns “aim to sensitize citizens to three fundamental aspects,” according to Telmo Gonçalves of the ERC.
The first is “developing a critical attitude towards the information they consume through digital platforms,” the second is “prioritizing sources of information that they recognize and recognize as trustworthy,” and the third is “developing a judicious and thoughtful attitude when sharing information.” . information.”
In addition to fact-checking, in early May, the National Electoral Commission (CNE) and ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon signed a protocol on “monitoring and identifying political disinformation” in the campaign for the June 9 European elections.
ISCTE, through MediaLab, has already implemented a similar project with the agency Lusa for the March 10 legislative elections, in which “signs of external interference” were detected for the first time in online advertising.
One of the goals of the MediaLab and Lusa project was to identify disinformation content attributed to parties or candidates by national “fact checkers” accredited by the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN), Poligrafo, Observador Fact Check and Público – Prova dos Factos. and measure social media impact measured in interactions and views.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal

I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.