The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Rule 133 of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas the Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, announced the intention to establish a European Task Force to combat fake news, with the aim of creating a common approach at European level, harmonising the actions of individual Member States;

B.  having regard to the experience of public and private organisations engaged in ‘debunking’ and of pressure groups in Europe and elsewhere, whose success has in general been unsatisfactory or limited only to some aspects of the problem;

C.  having regard to the sensitivity of the issues forming the subject of fake news, for the most part associated with xenophobia, nationalism and islamophobia, as well as to the cultural importance of the phenomenon;

1.  Calls on the Commission to take resolute steps towards a new legislative framework on ‘fake news’ and ‘hate speech’, including a form of liability for operators of on-line platforms that is compatible with freedom of expression but which does not exempt providers from necessary and technically feasible controls.