A team of fifteen academics and personalities, chaired by sociologist Gérald Bronner, was tasked this Wednesday by Emmanuel Macron with making proposals in the face of the grip of conspiracy theories and disinformation in the public debate, by the end of December.
Entitled “Lights in the digital age”, the commission “will have to formulate by the end of the year concrete proposals in the fields of education, regulation, the fight against the diffusers of hatred and of disinformation ”, indicates the Presidency of the Republic in a press release, which adds that it will receive the members of the Commission this Wednesday at the end of the afternoon.
An attempt at destabilization attributed to Russia
Emmanuel Macron’s new initiative comes a few months before the presidential election campaign, a period particularly conducive to manipulation and disinformation of all kinds. Victim of an attempt at destabilization during the last days of the 2017 electoral campaign, which he subsequently attributed to Russia, Emmanuel Macron has since increased initiatives with his majority to try to reduce the risk.
In particular, in 2018, Parliament adopted a law relating to the manipulation of information during an election period, which assigned new powers to the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) in the face of digital platforms during an election period. The government also created in mid-2021 Viginum, an agency attached to the General Secretariat for National Defense (SGDSN) and responsible for tracking down disinformation during an election period.
Overpresence of fake news on social networks
And the executive is trying to push the fire at European level to quickly adopt the new European law known as “DSA”, which should in particular strengthen the obligations imposed on major Internet platforms in terms of content moderation. The stake of the commission launched Wednesday will be to make proposals so that the public debate is an exercise of “collective intelligence” where the profusion of information is an asset, and not a threat, explained Gerald Bronner.
Today, the overabundance of information is accompanied by a certain “cacophony”, with “a direct competition between all visions of the world”, which they come under “science, rationality, belief, magic, superstition, ”he stressed in particular. Studies have shown, for example, the tendency for social networks to overweight false information in their recommendation algorithms, he recalled. In 2019, a study on YouTube showed that a query with the word “climate” led to “more than 50% on a climate skeptic video,” he said.
A “digital enslavement”
Gérald Bronner spoke of eight working themes for the commission, starting with how the algorithms of social networks and major Internet platforms can cause “digital enslavement”, by shaping the conversation within society. The commission will also be interested in the way in which the advertising market takes advantage of this false news, but also in the means of developing critical thinking, the editorial freedom of the media in the face of pressure from platforms, or even foreign interference, he indicated.
The commission is made up of researchers such as sociologist Laurent Cordonier, cyberspace specialist Frédérick Douzet, historian Jean Garrigues, anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush, but also personalities such as Rudy Reichstadt (director of Conspiracy Watch), professor of the Rose schools -Marie Farinella, Web journalist Aude Favre or Rachel Kahn, former high-level athlete turned lawyer, actress and writer. In February 2020, Emmanuel Macron warned that Russia “would continue to try to destabilize” Western democracies by interfering in their elections and manipulating social networks. “Faced with these attacks, we have extremely few anti-bodies,” he added.