Hate speech and fake news
12.7.2017
Question for written answer E-004717-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Tibor Szanyi (S&D)
EU institutions agree that the problem of hate speech and fake news used by extremist political forces to destabilise Europe must be tackled with urgency.
There are EU funded projects — such as ‘No to hate speech in our media — Sharing best practices to counter hate speeches about migrants, ethnic and religious minorities in the European media’ — started specifically to counter the resurgence of hate speech against vulnerable groups. Through these, experts have come together to share best practices and develop new approaches and solutions to tackling the problem without hurting free speech. However, the outcomes of these projects do not seem to have been discussed or integrated in a larger EU action plan.
The Commission has provided action grants supporting transnational projects in line with the specific objective of preventing and combatting racism, xenophobia, homophobia and other forms of intolerance. Against this background, the Commission is asked to answer the following:
- 1.Does it plan to use the knowledge created by these projects to stop the spread of hate speech and fake news?
- 2.Is it in touch with the project developers in order to be able to consider, and possibly benefit from, the outcome of their work?
- 3.Does it agree that not to use this accumulated expertise would be a waste of EU funds?