The Digital Services Act (DSA) provides a strong regulatory framework to assess and mitigate risks to civic discourse and electoral processes, including that of disinformation, while safeguarding fundamental rights. The report provides an overview of the actions taken by the European Commission and Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) to monitor compliance and enforce the DSA, as well as the actions undertaken under the Code of Practice on Disinformation and by the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) in the context of the European elections.
The report details the act actions that took place:
- the publication of the DSA Election Guidelines
- a stress test in the form of a tabletop exercise
- regulatory dialogues with very large online platforms and search engines (VLOPSEs)
- enforcement actions under the DSA
- the work of the DSA Ad Hoc Working Group on elections, which will become a permanent Working Group on Information Integrity under the Board
- cooperation under the Code of Practice on Disinformation and its Rapid Response System
- the activities of the EDMO Elections Taskforce
The report highlights that the actions to ensure preparedness and coordination among all relevant stakeholders were successful, as no major or systemic disinformation incidents were identified that disrupted the elections.
The Commission and Digital Services Coordinators will continue to prioritise addressing risks to civic discourse and electoral processes. The lessons learned from these elections will inform our work on elections taking place at national, regional and local levels in Member States going forward.
The Commission collaborated with the Board in the preparation of this report. The publication of this report showcases the commitment of the Board and the European Commission to protect civic discourse and electoral processes from information manipulation and disinformation.
Next steps
- continued cooperation of the working group on the Integrity of the Information Space under the Board
- stronger monitoring and detection capabilities through further strengthening EDMO
- finalising the Code’s Rapid Response System for future elections
- the swift conversion of the Code of Practice on Disinformation into a DSA Code of Conduct
You can download the PDF version of the report below.