New EU guidelines on mitigating risks for electoral

The question

What are the European Commission’s new guidelines and how do they protect the integrity of electoral processes? 

The key takeaway

The European Commission’s (the Commission) guidelines outline best practices and recommendations that Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Search Engines (VLOSEs) should put in place before, during and after electoral processes. These guidelines highlight the potential areas of risk and how VLOPs and VLOSEs should mitigate these, for example, through setting up adequate internal teams and through working appropriately with EU authorities.

The background

Given the large number of elections being held across the EU throughout 2024 (including, of course, the European Parliament election), the Commission sought to supplement the recently-introduced Digital Services Act (DSA) with additional information in an attempt “to prevent negative effects on democratic processes, civic discourse and electoral processes” through co-operation and compliance from VLOPs and VLOSEs. With this in mind, a public consultation was held at the beginning of 2024 on a draft of the guidelines prepared by the Commission. 

The development

On 26 March 2024, the Commission published guidelines under Article 35 of the DSA for VLOPs and VLOSEs. The DSA defines Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines to be those with more than 45 million users per month that are active in the EU. 

The guidelines provide recommended mitigation measures and best practices for before, during and after electoral events and provide specific guidance in relation to the European Parliament elections which took place in June 2024. The guidelines include the following recommendations: 

• Adequate internal processes: The Commission advises VLOPs and VLOSEs to consider setting up a dedicated and clearly identifiable internal team prior to an electoral period. The team should have appropriate resources which are proportionate to the risks related to the relevant election. The team should have expertise in areas such as fact-checking, cybersecurity, and content moderation. The Commission recommends that the measures and resources which are put in place are defined in the VLOP or VLOSE’s terms and conditions
• Specific mitigation measures: The guidelines highlight the need to engage in critical thinking and ensure that users can recognise disinformation and manipulation techniques. To achieve this, the Commission recommends that VLOPs and VLOSEs implement and invest in media literacy initiatives. Examples of this include collaborating with local media literacy organisations to draw on their knowledge. The guidelines also note that “inoculation measures” can be developed as a way to pre-empt disinformation and manipulation techniques. The guidelines provide examples of inoculation measures which include participation in online games on the generation of disinformation. The aim of these is to prompt those taking part to recognise strategies and tactics that can be used to influence opinion
• Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): The rapidly-evolving and widespread use of AI may pose risks within the context of elections. The Commission notes that this is particularly important when considering the potential for AI to mislead voters and manipulate the process through the creation and dissemination of inauthentic, biased, or misleading content such as audio, video and images in relation to election polls, political actors and the possible use of AI to depict false events
• Cooperation with national authorities, independent experts and civil society organisations: The guidelines note that the Commission recommends exchanging information with, and having contact points for, competent national and European authorities. Information should be shared with the authorities to inform risk assessment and enable national authorities to protect the integrity of the relevant electoral process.

Why is this important?

The guidelines are the first under Article 35 of the DSA to provide mitigation measures and best practice to VLOPs and VLOSEs. They will be key to protecting the integrity of electoral processes which may be at risk from a variety of factors such as the increasing use of generative AI, as explored above.

Any practical tips?

VLOPs and VLOSEs should review the guidelines and ensure that the recommended best practices and measures are in place before, during and after electoral processes. 

Summer 2024