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Now covering all EU countries, the new hubs will be operational from early next year and complement the current eight hubs already in place since 2021. They will contribute to the creation of a multidisciplinary community to create a network capable of detecting and analysing disinformation campaigns, organising media literacy activities at national or multinational level and other activities supporting the fight against disinformation.
Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová said: “Ensuring transparency, raising awareness and fact-checking are amongst the most important tools we have in dispelling online disinformation. We are making sure this is done efficiently and that the results are available to every single European. We will continue to build on the expertise of the European Digital Media Observatory in the context of the Code of Practice on Disinformation. This will also strengthen the efforts to counter Russia war propaganda in every EU country and in all languages.”
Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, said:
In the EU, we are reinforcing our actions against disinformation and EDMOs contribution in this regard is important. The new Digital Services Act – the EU centre piece in making the online space safer that has just entered into force –will put our fight against disinformation on a new level.
The six proposals selected by a panel of independent experts will benefit from EU funding (about €8 million overall) from the Digital Europe Programme. The new national and regional hubs will each cover one or more countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovenia.