On April 17, the press revealed that the Élysée Palace is pressing the European Commission to revise the guidelines of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in order to broaden the definition of ‘disinformation’, particularly during election periods.
Yet, in the 102 pages of the DSA, the term ‘disinformation’ appears only twelve times. It is not a central concept of the text. Moreover, no precise definition is given in Article 2, which nevertheless lists all the definitions used in the regulation.
The Commission is in fact relying on Article 34 of the DSA, which refers to “systemic risks” that may result from “actual or foreseeable negative effects on civic discourse, electoral processes or public safety”. It is on this vague basis that the Commission’s guidelines on mitigating systemic risks to electoral processes were adopted, published on April 26, 2024, just before the European elections.
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