The “pandemic” of disinformation is very difficult to stop – European Commissioner

Disinformation spreads like a virus during a pandemic, as those who are not trained to recognize fakes «infect» others.

European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Aja Labib said this in an interview’with Ukrinform.

«During a pandemic, when someone who is not vaccinated gets infected and spreads the virus, affecting more and more people. The same applies to disinformation. People who are not trained to distinguish facts from misinformation spread it to other people, «infecting» them too. So, misinformation is very contagious, and «pandemic» is really hard to stop», – said Lyabib.

The official noted that, amid the disinformation coming from Russia, in her home country, Belgium, intelligence recently learned that there had been a «hostile infiltration», revealing that some lawmakers «are linked to the far right, as well as Russia».

«This means that threats are everywhere. Threats may come from some media outlets that seek to sow confusion, to incite people to some kind of revolution against the system», – stressed Labib.

Recalling the recent elections held in the EU, including in Belgium, the European Commissioner stated that in Brussels «we understood that we must implement the so-called democracy shield to protect all our democracies from malicious influence».

She acknowledged that the EU needs to improve the existing civil protection mechanism.

«The threat landscape is constantly changing, so we need to adapt to be able to respond to hybrid threats», – summarized Lyabib.

As reported by Ukrinform, one of the most famous Belgian newspapers, De Morgen, has decided to no longer publish posts on Elon Musk's social network X due to “toxicity and disinformation on the platform”.

One of the most famous British newspapers, The Guardian, has also decided to stop publishing news on the social network X due to disturbing content on the platform.

Meanwhile, in Spain, the newspaper La Vanguardia is stopping publishing on the X platform, stating that it will delete all its accounts from there.