Russian bots tried to influence EU elections, says Brussels
THE European elections were targeted by Russia, Brussels has said.
An initial report by the European Commission found that bots and fake accounts traced to Russia spread false information online in the run up to the poll in an attempt to radicalise debate and amplify divisive content.
The commission stated that the elections were far from a “disinformationfree zone”.
“There are plenty of reports of disinformation, from both bots and fake accounts, and that was across a number of member states: Poland, Spain, Latvia, France, the United Kingdom to name a few,” said Sir Julian King, the EU security commissioner.
The European Commission said, between January and May, it identified 1,000 “disinformation cases” – meaning “verifiably false or misleading information” was either posted or spread to intentionally deceive the public – linked to Russian sources. This was up from 400 such cases in the same period the prior year.
It also found more than 600 groups and Facebook pages that spread disinformation and hate speech, or involved people “using false profiles to artificially boost the content of parties or sites that they supported”.
Sir Julian said: “We have yet to identify any spectacular, high-profile hack or leak type of attack, of the sort that we saw a few years ago with the Democratic National Party, or an attack aimed at a major campaign as we saw in 2017 against the Macron campaign.”
Despite this, he added that there were “shortcomings” that needed to be addressed. Brussels said social media sites could do more to help clamp down on the spread of false information. It also called for sites to release data on the number of fake accounts and bots deleted in the run up to the elections.
If there were not improvements, the Commission said it could look at regulations in this area to force companies to increase transparency. “This is not suggesting we would set up some authority to determine whether particular pieces of political content were good or bad,” Sir Julian added.
I’m no stranger to Brussels, having been a regular visitor over a 40-year career in business. But I’ve just been back, and this time into the belly of the beast: I was being inducted as one of the new Brexit Party MEPS.
My trip began, quite literally, on the “gravy train”. I have never travelled in Eurostar first class before, but we were instructed that it is de rigeur to take the most expensive means of transport lest we let the side down. The EU seems to insist on this, even if it means a ridiculously circuitous route. Not much cheer, though, when I arrived. Brussels was coming to life following a bank holiday; Parliament shuts down for a month during the spring as there are so many public holidays. The city nevertheless swarms with officials, researchers, and flunkies, all hell bent on churning out rules. On this occasion most of them appeared to be in the cafés around the Parliament. After all, it was only 10.30am. Nobody seemed bothered by the sight of a road worker with an angle grinder, not wearing the Eu-mandated safety goggles. Technically, however, the health and safety lot are in Luxembourg.
Once inside, we were greeted by rows of bureaucrats, signing us up to the EU programme. Dare to ask anyone about anything other than what was immediately in front of them, however, and you might as well have been speaking Martian. I came away surprised that they could find their way to the toilet. But in the rabbit warren of corridors, lifts and floors, I would be surprised if anybody could. Of course, the building itself is used for only a few weeks a year as the entire circus will haul itself off at least once a month to Strasbourg where there is another Parliament building.
I have seen many a champagne reception in Strasbourg and Brussels, but not on this occasion. Perhaps they knew who we were. We instead had the serious business of signing up for computers and travel, hotels and cars. The pool of 160 Mercs available to MEPS won’t take you from the airport to your hotel. They will, however, take you from the airport to the Parliament, and then onto your hotel. But what is the point of bureaucracy if you can’t make it as bothersome as possible? A little microcosm of the EU.
We were briefed on the workings of the Parliament: how we might sit for months without a chance to speak, and would then only have one minute to do so before being cut off. I’ve sat through interminable meetings there, listening through my “cans” to the translation and not being able to resist a joke. Everyone would laugh, except for the Germans. Not because they had no humour, but because they had no English and it would take an extra 10 seconds for the translator to get to the verb at the end of the sentence.
But the prize for Eurospeak of the week goes to the official who explained to me that it was not permitted to represent your country as an MP and be an MEP at the same time because that would be a conflict of interest. I rather think that sums up the problem.