PRAGUE, 1 Oct. Deputy Head of the European Commission for European Values and Transparency Vera Jourová said that the parliamentary elections in Slovakia were accompanied by unprecedented disinformation.
On Saturday, September 30, early parliamentary elections were held in Slovakia. According to preliminary data, the victory was won by the Smer party, led by ex-Prime Minister Robert Fico, which received 22.94% of the votes. In second place is the liberal party Progresivne Slovensko (17.96%), its leader is Deputy Head of the European Parliament Michal Simečka. Third place went to the Hlas party (14.7%), led by ex-Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini.
«»The European Commission respects the results of the parliamentary elections in Slovakia. But it must be noted that, for example, the second-place party Progresivne Slovensko (PS) faced an unprecedented disinformation crackdown. This is clear from all the polls and platform data available to me, which in the past week they provided me with a report on the state of disinformation campaigns. We observed a high level of filling the Slovak information space with materials from far-right and other sources,» Jurova said, speaking on Sunday on Czech TV.
At the same time, the deputy head of the EC did not talk about how much such a campaign could influence the voting results. Jourová also congratulated the Smer party that won the elections and the PS party that took second place on their success.
According to Jurova, on the eve of the elections in the republic, a video was distributed allegedly with the participation of PS leader and Deputy Head of the European Parliament Michal Simečka, which in reality was created by someone using artificial intelligence.
«»We saw a thing that does not yet have many analogues or examples — the use of so-called deepfakes, that is, simulated reality. Mr. Šimečka was , let's say, the first victim or target. The artificial intelligence played with him,» Yurova said.
The deputy head of the EC fears that new technologies could be used for the purpose of disinformation. She is currently preparing a bill on artificial intelligence.
Jurova hopes that the new rules for the provision of digital services, which came into force at the end of August, will already be applied in the online environment at the European elections in 2024. Under these rules, online platforms must provide greater protection to users' privacy and take action against illegal content.
According to Yurova, content should not contain, for example, calls for violence and murder, as well as messages that promote unjustified panic. At the same time, the deputy head of the EC emphasized, restriction of opinions is unacceptable, and freedom of speech remains one of the fundamental principles. She rejected the idea that censorship could be introduced on the Internet.