Ms Margrethe Vestager:

This is something we are passionate about. Someone told me the other day that the risk of someone passing on an article that is misinformation is higher with my generation or the slightly older one. It is definitely not always young people who are the source of misinformation or who pass it on; it can very well be people of other ages. It is important, therefore, to have a broad scope when we are discussing how to ensure we will get the exact competences the Deputy mentioned.

EU Code Week is ongoing because it is a great initiative, and it is encouraging to be part of this. We also have events - what we call hackathons - because it is intriguing and interesting to see what can be achieved in perhaps just 24 hours if skilled people work in teams on a certain area. Solutions can be found and that is an inspiration too. We have an ongoing project to determine whether we can create a European digital certificate, similar to the one for languages, where somebody can receive qualifications of C1, B2, B1 and so on for his or her skill level. We could have the same for digital skills in order that employers could easily recognise what kind of digital skill a young person or an experienced person has, and he or she will be able to travel with those digital skills. We are in the process of developing that. At the same time, it will not apply to each and every one of us such that if we just become more clued in, we will not be misinformed.

We have also strengthened the code of conduct. It is soft law, but all the big companies, such as the US ones, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok and Mozilla, have signed up for a number of actions to ensure that misinformation will be suppressed. During the pandemic, for instance, they sought to ensure that when a person was seeking Covid information, he or she would see the official information from the local health ministry as the first result. We strengthened the code because we found there was room for the platforms to do better.

Here, of course, the next step will be the Digital Services Act. This will give them new obligations. For example, they would have to consider whether there is a risk that their platforms can be misused for systematic misinformation to people of all ages.