On January 30, the European Parliament discussed censorship policies, misinformation, and disinformation. It subsequently released a video of the meeting, titled “The impact of disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda on democracy during the pandemic: extracts from the public hearing.”
French socialist MEP Raphael Glucksmann said disinformation is a threat to democracy and proposed cracking down on foreign influence campaigns.
“We should not try to forbid opinions,” he said.
However, he added: “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 … [making] our democracy dysfunctional.”
“Hundreds of thousands or millions of our fellow citizens believe that the earth is flat or that the vaccine gives you the 5G in your arm, [and] then it becomes our problem as legislators,” he said.
