Leonid Levin: the problem of fake news should be solved jointly at the international level

The Chairman of the Committee on Informational Policy, Technologies and Communications announced this during the 13th UN Internet Governance Forum, which takes place in Paris from 12 to 14 November 2018
Chairman of the Committee on Informational Policy, Technologies and Communications Leonid Levin
Chairman of the Committee on Informational Policy, Technologies and Communications Leonid Levin

Participating in the discussion on the media and content, the parliamentarian expressed the opinion that at present the self-regulation mechanisms of this industry are not sufficient, and the transfer of regulatory authority to large media holdings or social platforms does not lead to the desired effect because the principles, on which approaches to such regulation are being developed, are not transparent. He also noted that global policies of transnational Internet companies often do not take into account the specifics of individual countries, which is often observed in matters of countering terrorism or xenophobia.

Discussing the problem of fake news, the Chairman of the Committee emphasized that the basic mechanism for determining the reliability already exists in the form of an “information weight” system, which consists of site ratings, the number of subscribers and the total weight of reposts from the source.

“The principles of formal regulation of fake news should be defined jointly at the international level, starting from the self-regulation already existing in the network, while the emphasis shall be placed on combating sites that intentionally spread fake news, and which are often not significant platforms that perform the task of legalizing false information,” concluded Leonid Levin Levin Leonid Leonidoviсh Levin
Leonid Leonidoviсh
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