Following the permeation of fake news in America’s political landscape, the National Election Commission of Portugal is putting measures in place to combat the spread of ‘alternative facts’ ahead of the country’s general elections next year.
Portugal’s Election Commission and National Cyber Security Centre have reportedly been working on initiatives to minimise the problem of ‘fake news’ in the European and general elections in 2019. “Speaking to Lusa on Friday, João Tiago Machado, a CNE spokesman, said the first meetings took place this week, and entities will be selected to work on these initiatives, which are expected to involve a drill in early 2019.”
“The aim, he added, is to “take precautionary measures to avoid these issues,” in the election year, at a time when cases of ‘fake news’ are the focus of passionate political debate in the presidential elections in Brazil.”
WhatsApp and fake news were almost synonymous in the recently concluded Brazilian elections, where many believe the Facebook-owned app was instrumental in swaying the election and determining the results.
According to this Quartz India article, “On Oct. 28, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil after a bitterly fought runoff against left-wing Fernando Haddad. Throughout the contest, WhatsApp played a major role in political campaigning and the spread of fake news. Earlier in October, a Brazilian newspaper reported that (paywall, link in Portuguese) businessmen had illegally bankrolled a campaign to buy mass-messaging packages to spread pro-Bolsonaro content.”
Fake news (or news created and spread purposefully for political reasons) took prominence in the 2016 American elections and is widely cited as the reason why Donald Trump won the election. It also reportedly has a hand in the Brexit referendum results and could wreak more havoc in subsequent polls. This is what the Portuguese National Election Commission is looking to fight against its upcoming general elections.
According to the Macau News Agency, “In Portugal, some cases of fake news have been registered, namely one involving the coordinator of the Left Block, Catarina Martins, which falsely reported she was wearing a watch valued at €20 million.” Following this, a daily Portuguese newspaper reported that some sites in Canada are able to determine when fake news emerges from the country and linked these sites to a company in the country.
“The National Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS) reported in April that in 2019 it would work on a European initiative to “mitigate problems” with possible disruptions to the European Parliamentary elections similar those that affected the US presidential election and the EU referendum in the UK.
“Because of the history of disruption of electoral acts worldwide, the plan is for this not to happen in Europe,” said CNCS president Pedro Veiga, who resigned a few weeks later, and the European Commission “is planning activities to mitigate any problems that may occur.”
