AB 2839 aimed to label AI-generated content in political ads as "manipulated." A federal judge says the law violates the 1st Amendment.

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

Welcome to hell week: Somehow, it's here. The 2024 election is tomorrow. If you haven't mailed yours in yet, do it today. Better yet, drop your ballot in a ballot box. Please do not drop any incendiary devices in ballot boxes. Tell your friends to vote. Tell your enemies to vote. Vote like your life depends on it. Vote like someone else's life depends on it. Then, take a nap or something. 

Scene setting: Wind and weather are turbulent today. Everything is astir. 

⚠️The next storm system will move into western WA Monday into Tuesday, bringing gusty winds, lowland rain, mountain snow, & high surf to the region. Details are highlighted below!

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 3, 2024

To make everything worse: The sun is dead. It isn't coming back until spring. Say goodbye to long days. Go to an antique store and buy a lamp. I went to the Antique Mall of West Seattle this weekend and bought myself one. It's saving me. We all deserve soft, buttery warm light this winter. 

Starting tonight, the sun will set in the 4 pm hour every night until Jan. 25.

Seattle area vampires, rejoice! ????

— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) November 3, 2024

Iowaaaaat? Cross your fingers and hold your breath for this next part. The poll by respected pollster and possible soothsayer Ann Selzer commissioned by the Des Moines Register/Mediacom shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump 47% to 44% in Iowa. The state has voted staunchly red and resolutely for Trump. Back in June, Trump led President Joe Biden (before he decided he should lay down and take a nap instead of running for re-election) by 18 points. Even as recently as September, Trump led Harris in Iowa by 4 points. Apparently, the tables are turning and women are the ones doing the spinning. Particularly, older and independent women voters. Abortion is soooo on the ballot and Iowan women are not taking their futures lightly. If this poll is right, Harris wouldn't just win Iowa, she'd win it in a landslide. 

Trump says "actually, no:" Famous fact-lover Donald Trump says the Iowa poll is wrong and we are all mistaken. According to Trump, the truly accurate poll is the one from Emerson College that shows him up 53% to Harris' 43%. 

Someone who will not get to see if the Iowa poll is accurate: Music legend Quincy Jones died on Sunday. He was 91. 

Don't look a gift poll in the mouth: The knock-on-wood-worthy polling isn't just for national politics. In local news, a Northwest Progressive Institute poll found that in the Seattle City Council Position 8 race, Alexis Mercedes Rink leads incumbent Tanya Woo 52% to 28%. Remember how U2 slipped its album "Songs of Innocence" into everyone's iTunes libraries back in 2014? That's basically how it feels having the council-selected Woo, who knows nothing about anything, in a position of power. Seems as though Seattle is rejecting Woo the same way everyone rejected "Songs of Innocence"—moving her straight to the trash where we hopefully will never have to listen to her again. 

Not worried about the election? Must be nice. But, also maybe you should be. Gov. Jay Inslee clearly is. He signed a letter activating the National Guard in the event of civil unrest after the election.

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee is activating the state's National Guard, directing personnel to make preparations in case they need to respond to “civil unrest” related to the election. pic.twitter.com/26JGFkv03a

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) November 2, 2024

Bad news for Peanut: Tragedy struck the squirrelly saga of Peanut, the social media sensation plucked from his owner's care last week by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Apparently, after removing Peanut, the DEC then euthanized him to "test for rabies." The squirrel who often donned tiny cowboy hats will only do so now from heaven. Rest easy, Peanut. 

Roaming police: City officials mysteriously placed Tacoma's police chief on a brief administrative leave back in September. Now, we know why. Chief Avery Moore was gabbing too much while on vacation. Moore racked up a $1,082 bill on his city-issued cellphone while he was in Sweden. Most of the charges appear to be international usage charges, but I like to imagine Moore couldn't stop gossiping on the phone while touring fjords. 

Work stoppage for NYT tech guild: The "over 600 software engineers, product managers, data analysts, and designers" keeping the New York Times website up and running went on strike at 12:01 this morning, in the latest attempt to win a union contract with the media company. The work stoppage comes at a pivotal time for the NYT; Election Day coverage on the ~newspaper of record~ requires a lot of tech. Maybe this squeeze will give these workers the contract they're asking for. In the meantime, don't cross the digital picket line. No Wordle. No Connections. Just solidarity. 

Have you seen this prayer wheel? Capitol Hill Himalayan restaurant Annapurna needs helping finding the handmade Tibetan prayer wheel that normally sits outside its front entrance. Someone nabbed the prayer wheel last week. Last time a business's prayer wheel went missing, someone found it in Lake Washington. 

WA GOP's sexist, racist, anti-LGBTQ text campaign: In Washington's 14th legislative district, the texts are getting out of hand. The Spanish texts spread lies about Latina Democratic candidates, saying they "support chemical castration of children at school," they want to "eliminate the Spanish language," and they "hate your family, they hate God, and they hate the truth." Washington GOP chair Jim Walsh confirmed the organization footed the bill for these texts. The Democrats are pissed and believe these texts are defamatory and broke campaign finance laws. They'll be taking legal action.  

The Washington State GOP is sending out these texts in an increasingly Latino state senate district (14), per a source who sent these along.

(I speak French, not Spanish, so these translations are not my own).

Demographic data on the district here, which is held by 3… pic.twitter.com/ZLy0TCf3As

— Jake Lahut (@JakeLahut) November 2, 2024

Volcanic eruptions in Indonesia: Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted at around midnight Monday. The hot ash shot as high as 6,500 feet into the air and hit several villages, burning down several houses, including a convent of Catholic nuns. Ten people are dead so far. 

South Africa's Steve Irwin died: Dingo Dinkelman, 44, was a wildlife content creator and a conservationist. Dinkelman died from a venomous snake bite after spending a month in an induced coma. 

Something to take your mind off the election: Make this chili. 

Describing herself as 'compassionate disrupter' in the 3-minute video, the former 'I Am Cait' star takes aim at 'career politicians' Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi for breaking COVID health protocols.

Transport lobbyists call for alterations to Wolverhampton extension.

The Midlands based rail champion, Campaign for Rail will be holding its inaugural Annual General Meeting tomorrow at the Atrium, Moor Street Station

Public support for benefits 'safety net'.

Half-season ticket launch will see help given to city charities.

Our recent story about proposed developments at Acocks Green has drawn a reply from local campaigner Julie Larden

'Rat run' fear over decision to open up street to through traffic.

The growing calls for systemic reform of American policing follow years of rising anger at the ongoing deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement, including the recent killing of George Floyd. The calls for change run the gamut from severely restricting police use of deadly force, creating a national database of abusive officers and re-directing taxpayer money away from police toward social programs that improve education and tackle crises including homelessness, poverty and mental health care . But one key problem has gotten less attention: the conflict of interest, real and perceived, between prosecutors and police unions. When district attorneys run for the office they get political donations from a range of interests including powerful, well-funded police unions who represent the officers that district attorneys will be called to prosecute in the event of officer brutality, corruption or even murder. "We need to do everything that we can in this moment to avoid not

A former Trump campaign official has withdrawn from consideration for a job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture after being pulled into the imbroglio over Russia's interference efforts against the U.S. in the 2016 presidential race. Sam Clovis said on Thursday that he would not go forward in trying to become the USDA's undersecretary for research, education and economics. That news followed a quick series of connected developments in the Russia investigation being conducted by the Department of Justice special counsel: first, a guilty plea — announced Monday —by a former campaign adviser who worked for Clovis, and then, reports that Clovis has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team in the Russia case and also testified before a Washington, D.C., grand jury. George Papadopoulos, the foreign policy adviser who has pleaded guilty, was approached by Russian agents early in his tenure and offered "dirt" on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and meetings with Russian

A lot of people collect things, and in Paul Sherman’s family, that thing is campaign memorabilia. Paul’s new book is called “Look Away: Documenting Crude and Sexist Items From the Trump Campaign Trail.” It includes several pictures from rallies in Georgia. We recently caught up with three members of the Sherman family.

Major Beer Company Seeks music for advertising campaign 3 Slots $15k

The opp is for several different pieces of music as it will cover 3 major tv / film ads and several web-blog adverts and music to show off a new product. They have asked for intense and dramatic songs, positive songs, friendship songs, and holiday and travel themed songs. Once again they are choosing different songs for different territories so there are many slots they are looking for me to fill.

The videos and ads will be seen by over a million people across the globe.

All styles of music and genres will be considered as the company are looking top quality songs but also lyrical substance and they are also looking for top quality standout attention-grabbing, meaningful songs whether softer emotive ballads or harder more powerful driving tracks as the range covered by the company is huge.

THEY JUST NEED BE TOP SONGS!!

Please submit your best work, radio ready, mastered songs. You must own 100% copyright. Only songs with cleared samples. I will accept demos as I am also a music producer / studio owner so if the song is a 'no brainer' and has enough potential to fit the opp then I would consider re-cutting it for the client.

Grand Northern Sync has worked closely with companies such as: Apple, Honda, Reebok, Samsung, BBC, ABC, New Show Media, Massive Films, Rickety Shack films, Seat, H&M, Busch,

Payouts and rights: If selected you will keep 100% of your rights, royalties and payments dependent on the number of times the tracks are used. Payout is $25k dependent on usage and length of use.

If selected the songs will be passed to the company and they will have the final say, Grand Northern Sync will be on hand to help the artist all the way through the process with chosen artists (at no financial charge).

All songs submitted will be considered for all the other opps we have.

I am looking forward to hearing your music.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND US TRACKS TO OUR SOUNDCLOUD, EMAIL, LINKEDIN OR ANY SOCIAL MEDIA....Please?

- Alexander Johnston / Grand Northern Sync

Cool Tracks Wanted for Fashion Campaign

Our client is looking for an interesting, cool track for the upcoming campaign for fashion brand. While the visuals feature tropical scenes, young adults having fun and splashing in the sea, the creative team wants to stir away from the typical Summer banger. Tonally, the track should feel fun and energetic, while retaining a level of surprise and sophistication. The focus of this search is hitting the right tone, the track can be old, new, featuring female or male vocals. We are open to several directions, however something with a timeless, vintage inspired sound would contrast the visuals well.

Good luck and please DO NOT contact us directly or via Social Media as this will not be read or listened to.

Much Love
Alex
Grand Northern Sync

Currently seeking “beats” for use in TV & Online advertising campaigns in South Korea!
,br> When I say “beats”, I mean any tracks that are driven by a breakbeat, as one, if not the most dominant part of the track. Ie, Drum & Bass, Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Electronica, Edm, Trap, Grime, Experimental etc.

All tracks must be upbeat and have a “Phat Beat”, “Killer Beat”, “Sick Beats”, “Dope Beat” or whatever your preferred description would be.

Music must be well produced, high-quality, mixed and mastered. Instrumental tracks preferred please, but great vocal tracks can be accepted too (if you can supply instrumental versions even better) and all tempos considered.

Artists must own all rights to their music 100% on both sides and there must be no copyright infringement. All music will be listened to, reviewed and feedback given.

The average cost of TV advertising commercial in Korea is $800 to $1,500 per track, and for worldwide rights up to $14,000.

The average cost of Online & YouTube advertising in Korea is $500-$2500 (geo restricted for single country of Korea), and worldwide use for $3000-$5000.

Selected tracks be sent to clients in South Korea and music licensed on a non-exclusive basis (so you maintain all rights to your music), we simply go 50-50 on deals we get and you're paid quarterly.

The South Korean market is built on a unique structure, which is not the same as any foreign market structure around the world. Because of this Korea has a higher advertising music fee than most other countries. This may be due to systemic limitations that the performing royalties cannot be collected, but also because there is no subsequent secondary payment after the initial payment of music fees. The total amount paid in Korea is 100% mechanical payout.

Clients who will be using music in South Korea; Korea's major advertising agencies including the CHEIL and INOCEAN and brands such as; Samsung, LG, Hyundai and SK to name a few.

If you make “beats’ I really look forward to hearing from you !

All the best,


- Giles Gale - Music supervisor, sync & Licensing Manager - Resonant Music Licensing

A $107 million surge in contributions has made Senator John Kerry the best-financed challenger in presidential campaign history.

Campaign leadership installed when Joe Biden was running is facing fierce internal criticism. “I’m amazed that we even got close,” said one official close to the team.

Oprah Winfrey's production banner, Harpo Productions, denies that the billionaire television host was "paid a personal fee" by Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign.

The post Oprah Winfrey Production Company Denies Being Paid by Harris Campaign appeared first on Breitbart.

“Chalk Talk” returns to talk about student health, school bonds and more. A new analysis looks at California’s campaign watchdog agency. Finally, Sacramento ghost guides talk about some of their favorite supernatural tales.

POLITICO’s California Playbook discusses the latest in state politics. How Kamala Harris’s upbringing and earlier campaigns shaped her candidacy. Finally, fashion designer Samuel Rose talks about his creative process and an upcoming exhibition.

"For now, let’s celebrate the end of the most vexing, mean-spirited and household-dividing presidential election in modern times, as it heaves itself across the finish line and crumples in a lousy heap."

“Let’s do this — together,” the congresswoman said.

The Black Republican thinks America isn’t racist.

The Women’s Resource Centre [WRC] recently launched a comprehensive Housing Advocacy Campaign to highlight the critical issue of housing insecurity in Bermuda, with a particular focus on the challenges faced by women and single-income families. A spokesperson said, “In alignment with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes housing as a fundamental human right, […]

The Bermuda Diabetes Association has launched the ‘LABELS’ campaign to “raise awareness around diabetes-related stigma.” A spokesperson said, “Ahead of National Diabetes Awareness Month [November], the Bermuda Diabetes Association has launched a campaign called LABELS to raise awareness around diabetes-related stigma. The campaign aims to #EndDiabetesStigma by spotlighting the harmful effects that a choice of […]

Glenn Greenwald: "So you have huge number of journalists who believe that, they have the right to lie and even when they get caught, they don't care because they know their audience won't hold it against them." Continue reading →

Poor ol' Joe Biden has been the subject of many memes in this election cycle. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit that they've been pretty amusing. This particular meme mocks a campaign avatar where one can insert their image next to text that says "I'm on team Joe!" It's moderately cringey to say the least, but cringey makes for the best meme material.

Knowing that today’s homes burn faster than ever, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) announced “Every Second Counts: Plan Two Ways Out” as the official theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, October 8-14, 2017. Experts say you may have as little as two minutes (or even less) to safely escape a typical home fire from the time the smoke alarm sounds.

What even is this planet that we live on anymore though?

An ongoing campaign is targeting npm developers with hundreds of typosquat versions of their legitimate counterparts in an attempt to trick them into running cross-platform malware. The attack is notable for utilizing Ethereum smart contracts for command-and-control (C2) server address distribution, according to independent findings from Checkmarx, Phylum, and Socket published over the past few

In an unusually specific campaign, users searching about the legality of Bengal Cats in Australia are being targeted with the GootLoader malware. "In this case, we found the GootLoader actors using search results for information about a particular cat and a particular geography being used to deliver the payload: 'Are Bengal Cats legal in Australia?,'" Sophos researchers Trang Tang, Hikaru Koike,

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a new sophisticated tool called GoIssue that can be used to send phishing messages at scale targeting GitHub users. The program, first marketed by a threat actor named cyberdluffy (aka Cyber D' Luffy) on the Runion forum earlier this August, is advertised as a tool that allows criminal actors to extract email addresses from public GitHub

We have developed our own WordPress plugin which will help connect to your blog avoiding the use of XML-RPC.

The post Our own WordPress plugin for automated posting campaigns appeared first on RSSground.com.

We are excited to introduce posting campaign editor’s new interface. All changes are based on your notes and suggestions.  Now a posting campaign editor has 3 main sections: Content, Posting and Automation.  In the Content section you add your content feeds. Advanced settings will fine tune the algorithm of selecting  content from your feeds for […]

The post Posting Campaigns Major Interface Update appeared first on RSSground.com.

One of our recent major updates was integration with IFTTT platform that connects hundreds of businesses and millions of users. You can create special IFTTT posting campaigns and send content posts to IFTTT applets. Read more about IFTTT integration in RSS Ground. However, now we took it a step further and implemented IFTTT integration option […]

The post IFTTT Integration With Posting Campaigns appeared first on RSSground.com.

We are excited to unveil the latest service enhancements for RSS Ground. RSS Ground can be used on a set-and-forget basis. You can generate your private feeds, and they will be automatically updated with fresh content. You can then set up your posting campaigns and let automation handle the rest. However, keeping an eye on […]

The post Email Notifications For Posting Campaigns appeared first on RSSground.com.

For whatever reason, every election year Broward County always manages to steal the show when it comes to shady campaign practices. The 2020 election cycle is no different, and we are not referring to the embarrassment that is the Broward Republican Executive Committee, yet but there is still plenty of time for that group of misfits to step in it.

The post Smear campaign underway against DeSantis’ sheriff pick appeared first on Shark Tank.

For a second time, Kari Lake has been denied a win in an election.  First, it was for governor of Arizona, which was clearly due to election and voter fraud.  Now, it appears something similar occurred in her race against Ruben Gallego.  Now, the head of her campaign is speaking out and saying that there …

The vice-president failed to make the case that she would be different from her boss, President Joe Biden.

President Trump mocked Joe Biden Thursday evening for always calling a “lid” on campaign activities early in the morning, saying the Democratic presidential rival is “the lowest energy individual I’ve ever seen.” “Did you see [Biden] did a lid this morning again?” Trump told supporters during his campaign rally Thursday night at Cecil Airport hanger in Jacksonville, […]

The post Trump At Jacksonville Mocks Biden As ‘Lowest Energy Individual’ For Calling Campaign ‘Lid This Morning Again’ appeared first on Hispolitica.

The Trump campaign wants a third-party inspector to inspect both President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ears for electronic devices or transmitters prior to Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Trump has consented to the inspection while the Biden campaign has declined. However, according to a source told Floridian Press that the Biden campaign agreed […]

The post Biden Campaign Rejects Trump Campaign Calls For Pre-Debate Inspection For Electronic Earpieces appeared first on Hispolitica.

Trump 2020 reelection campaign announced Saturday for the final month before Election Day the launch of “Operation MAGA,” that will consist of a “full marshaling of top-level surrogates, campaign coalitions and Trump supporters to rally behind the president and carry the campaign forward” until President Trump recovers from COVID-19 and can return on the campaign […]

The post Trump Campaign Launches ‘Operation MAGA’ appeared first on Hispolitica.

In what seems like the work of a typical Democrat, Kama Harris raised one billion dollars for her campaign… and finished it $20 million in debt. Imagine what she would have done to the United States which would have started out bankrupt if Harris had entered the White House. How do you have an actual […]

The post Typical Democrat: Harris Raised One BILLION for her Campaign… Ended it $20 Million In Debt appeared first on The Lid.

For years, the Dems and their media enablers have complained about the 'divisive' nature of politics, and invariably laid blame on the 'other' party.

The post Campaign Door-Knocker Caught Going Full Racist On Camera — Guess Which Party? appeared first on Clash Daily.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that the media was bragging about Kamala's HUGE fundraising haul.

The post YIKES: Kamala’s Failed Campaign Finished DEEP In Debt — Here’s The 411 appeared first on Clash Daily.

Even after her loss on Nov. 5, Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign is still hounding donors for money. Harris’ campaign has bombarded supporters with fundraising messages following her election […]

The post Kamala's Campaign Is Still Aggressively Shaking Down Supporters For Cash appeared first on The Western Journal.

It was one of the high points in the early days of the Kamala Harris campaign, the honeymoon period where the vice president — newly minted as the Democratic nominee […]

The post Watch: Oprah Pressed Over Claims That Kamala Harris' Campaign Paid Her $1M for Political Endorsement appeared first on The Western Journal.

Persuasion or manipulation? Limiting campaigning online Expert comment NCapeling 15 February 2021

To tackle online disinformation and manipulation effectively, regulators must clarify the dividing line between legitimate and illegitimate campaign practices.

Democracy is at risk, not only from disinformation but from systemic manipulation of public debate online. Evidence shows social media drives control of narratives, polarization, and division on issues of politics and identity. We are now seeing regulators turn their attention to protecting democracy from disinformation and manipulation. But how should they distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate online information practices, between persuasive and manipulative campaigning?

Unregulated, the tactics of disinformation and manipulation have spread far and wide. They are no longer the preserve merely of disaffected individuals, hostile international actors, and authoritarian regimes. Facebook’s periodic reporting on coordinated inauthentic behaviour and Twitter’s on foreign information operations reveal that militaries, governments, and political campaigners in a wide range of countries, including parts of Europe and America, have engaged in manipulative or deceptive information campaigns.

For example, in September 2019, Twitter removed 259 accounts it says were ‘falsely boosting’ public sentiment online that it found to be operated by Spain’s conservative and Christian-democratic political party Partido Popular. In October 2020, Facebook removed accounts with around 400,000 followers linked to Rally Forge, a US marketing firm which Facebook claims was working on behalf of right-wing organisations Turning Point USA and Inclusive Conservation Group. And in December 2020, Facebook took down a network of accounts with more than 6,000 followers, targeting audiences in Francophone Africa and focusing on France’s policies there, finding it linked with individuals associated with the French military.

Public influence on a global scale

Even more revealingly, in its 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation, the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) found that in 81 countries, government agencies and/or political parties are using ‘computational propaganda’ in social media to shape public attitudes.

These 81 countries span the world and include not only authoritarian and less democratic regimes but also developed democracies such as many EU member states. OII found that countries with the largest capacity for computational propaganda – which include the UK, US, and Australia – have permanent teams devoted to shaping the online space overseas and at home.

OII categorizes computational propaganda as four types of communication strategy – the creation of disinformation or manipulated content such as doctored images and videos; the use of personal data to target specific segments of the population with disinformation or other false narratives; trolling, doxing or online harassment of political opponents, activists or journalists; and mass-reporting of content or accounts posted or run by opponents as part of gaming the platforms’ automated flagging, demotion, and take-down systems.

Doubtless some of the governments included within OII’s statistics argue their behaviour is legitimate and appropriate, either to disseminate information important to the public interest or to wrestle control of the narrative away from hostile actors. Similarly, no doubt some political campaigners removed by the platforms for alleged engagement in ‘inauthentic behaviour’ or ‘manipulation’ would defend the legitimacy of their conduct.

The fact is that clear limits of acceptable propaganda and information influence operations online do not exist. Platforms still share little information overall about what information operations they see being conducted online. Applicable legal principles such as international human rights law have not yet crystallised into clear rules. As information operations are rarely exposed to public view – with notable exceptions such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal – there is relatively little constraint in media and public scrutiny or censure.

OII’s annual reports and the platforms’ periodic reports demonstrate a continual expansion of deceptive and manipulative practices since 2016, and increasing involvement of private commercial companies in their deployment. Given the power of political influence as a driver, this absence of clear limits may result in ever more sophisticated techniques being deployed in the search for maximal influence.

Ambiguity over reasonable limits on manipulation plays into the hands of governments which regulate ostensibly in the name of combating disinformation, but actually in the interests of maintaining their own control of the narrative and in disregard of the human right to freedom of expression. Following Singapore’s 2019 prohibition of online untruths, 17 governments ranging from Bolivia to Vietnam to Hungary passed regulations during 2020 criminalising ‘fake news’ on COVID-19 while many other governments are alleged to censor opposition arguments or criticisms of official state narratives.

Clear limits are needed. Facebook itself has been calling for societal discussion about the limits of acceptable online behaviour for some time and has issued recommendations of its own.

The European Democracy Action Plan: Aiming to protect pluralism and vigour in democracy

The European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP), which complements the European Commission’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act proposals, is a welcome step. It is ground-breaking in its efforts to protect the pluralism and vigour of European democracies by tackling all forms of online manipulation, while respecting human rights.

While the EDAP tackles disinformation, it also condemns two categories of online manipulation – information influence operations which EDAP describes as ‘coordinated efforts by either domestic or foreign actors to influence a target audience using a range of deceptive means’ and foreign interference, described as ‘coercive and deceptive efforts to disrupt the free formation and expression of individuals’ political will by a foreign state actor or its agents’. These categories include influence operations such as harnessing fake accounts or gaming algorithms, and the suppression of independent information sources through censorship or mass reporting.

But the categories are so broad they risk capturing disinformation practices not only of rogue actors, but also of governments and political campaigners both outside and within the EU. The European Commission plans to work towards refined definitions. Its discussions with member states and other stakeholders should start to determine which practices ought to be tackled as manipulative, and which ought to be tolerated as legitimate campaigning or public information practices.

The extent of the EDAP proposals on disinformation demonstrates the EU’s determination to tackle online manipulation. The EDAP calls for improved practical measures building on the Commission’s 2020 acceleration of effort in the face of COVID-19 disinformation. The Commission is considering how best to impose costs on perpetrators of disinformation, such as by disrupting financial incentives or even imposing sanctions for repeated offences.

Beyond the regulatory and risk management framework proposed by the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission says it will issue guidance for platforms and other stakeholders to strengthen their measures against disinformation, building on the existing EU Code of Practice on Disinformation and eventually leading to a strengthened Code with more robust monitoring requirements. These are elements of a broader package of measures in the EDAP to preserve democracy in Europe.

Until there are clear limits, manipulative practices will continue to develop and to spread. More actors will resort to them in order not to be outgunned by opponents. It is hoped forthcoming European discussions – involving EU member state governments, the European Parliament, civil society, academia and the online platforms – will begin to shape at least a European and maybe a global consensus on the limits of information influence, publicly condemning unacceptable practices while safeguarding freedom of expression.

Most importantly, following the example of the EDAP, the preservation of democracy and human rights – rather than the promotion of political or commercial interest – should be the lodestar for those discussions.