JAKARTA - Eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, have called on major technology companies around the world to take action to combat disinformation on their social media platforms deemed to affect peace and stability.
In an open letter signed by their respective prime ministers, the countries said technology platforms such as Meta's Facebook should take concrete action such as refusing payments from sanctioned individuals and changing algorithms to promote accuracy over user involvement.
"The manipulation and intervention of foreign information, including disinformation, is being used to undermine our country, undermine our democracy, thwart access to Moldova and Ukraine to the European Union, and undermine our support for Ukraine in the war of Russian aggression," the letter said.
"Large tech companies must be vigilant and refuse to be used as a means to advance such goals. They must take steps to ensure that their platform is not used to spread propaganda or disinformation that promotes war, justify war crimes, crimes against humanity, or other forms of violence."
The letter was signed by the prime ministers of Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and released by the Prime Minister's office of the Czech Republic.
Meta says it has strengthened its fact-checking capacity in Eastern Europe and has taken a number of other steps to counter the spread of misinformation related to the war in Ukraine, as well as lower content ratings from Russian state-controlled media.
"We removed misinformation if it was expected to pose an unavoidable danger or violence, and worked with independent fact-checking partners to refute other false claims and show they were lower in the Feed, so few more people saw them," said a Meta spokesperson.
"We also limit access to RT and Sputnik (Russian media) across the EU and Ukraine, and add labels to every post on Facebook containing links to their websites, so people know before they click on or divide them. We continue to consult with governments in Central and Eastern Europe to deal with this problem."
The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), whose members include Meta, Twitter, and Google, among others, said it supports actions to counter disinformation such as the European Digital Services Act (DSA).
"We believe that the appropriate implementation of the DSA, combined with the latest EU Practice Code on Disinformation, is key to increasing resistance to disinformation," said Christian Borggreen, Senior Vice President, and CCIA European Chief, in addressing questions from Reuters.
A spokesman for the Czech Republic government did not immediately respond to questions about who received the letter.
The letter states that the design of the algorithm must be more transparent, and the public must know the policies of the platform and its law enforcement.
The platforms should appoint enough staff and allocate funding for content moderation, addressing growing threats from deepfakes and disinformation generated by artificial intelligence, the letter said.
"This is a call to act because of manipulation and interference of foreign information, including disinformation campaigns, threatening democracy, stability, and national security," the letter said.
"Large technology companies have the power to become vital allies in our joint efforts to deal with enemy information attacks against democracy and international rules-based order."
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