Dr. Eileen Culloty:

I thank the Chair and members for the opportunity to contribute to this discussion on the upcoming European elections, voting rights, and combating disinformation. As I am representing both the Institute of Future Media, Democracy and Society and Media Literacy Ireland, I have divided my contribution in two. First, I will address disinformation and then I will speak about media literacy.

Disinformation and other forms of information manipulation are widely recognised as a major challenge for democracies within the EU and beyond. Although the phenomenon is not new, it is now manifest on an unprecedented scale due to the revolution in digital communication technologies. As we enter a new era of generative AI, these issues will intensify and yet, in many ways, information manipulation remains challenging to conceptualise, measure and counteract.

Regarding conceptualisation, there remains a key division between foreign information manipulation and interference, FIMI, and domestic information manipulation. Within the EU, countries vary in the extent to which they put emphasis on one over the other. Moreover, responsibilities tend to fall to different Departments given that, for example, FIMI is an issue of security and foreign affairs. In terms of monitoring and measuring the scale of disinformation, it is vital that both the foreign and domestic dimensions are considered.

Ongoing monitoring of narratives, platforms and actors is necessary to understand the evolving dynamics of disinformation in Ireland. It is worth noting that no entity is tasked with doing this. With limited resources, journalists and fact checkers respond to day-to-day events and some NGOs monitor specific topics of interest. However, there is no overall monitoring of the media environment that would support an objective understanding of whether disinformation about a particular topic is increasing or decreasing or whether certain groups are starting to target politicians, political issues or elections.

Last year, the European Digital Media Observatory, of which DCU is a member, established a task force on the 2024 European Parliament elections. It conducted a review of elections in ten different countries and found that suggestions of voter fraud or unfair electoral practices were widespread, which is to say that Donald Trump’s 2020 narrative of voter fraud is now a standard feature of elections in Europe. Gathering this type of information is one way to help prepare for elections and pre-empt attacks on electoral integrity.

Within the global response to disinformation, there is a bias towards focusing on new technologies rather than on the dynamics of the whole media system. While it is clear that social media platforms enable and drive disinformation in many different ways, it is a mistake to assume the problem begins and ends online. Indeed, some political actors and media outlets are opportunistic in seeking to exploit controversies and support false narratives. Meanwhile, investigative journalists and fact checkers may struggle to respond to the volume of claims spread across all of these media platforms. One way to think about the challenge of disinformation during elections is to think about whether there is a vibrant independent media system capable of providing high-quality investigations in the public interest.

As regards countermeasures, there is no silver bullet to resolve disinformation or protect electoral integrity. The development of the Electoral Commission is very welcome and it will be judged over the long term. It is important to note that disinformation is a complex phenomenon with deep social, political and economic dimensions. Disinformation thrives when there are political and commercial incentives to create it and when it meets the psychological needs and ideological biases of members of the public. Ultimately, the challenges posed by disinformation need to be understood on broad terms. In the foreword to 2023 IDEA report on the global state of democracy, Professor Michael Ignatieff warns that democratic backsliding is “the most worrying political trend in the world today”. Disinformation and conspiracy theories play a role in this democratic backsliding but so too do attacks on democratic institutions and conventions including courts, rights, the rule of law, media freedom, NGOs and other countervailing institutions that are essential for democracy.

It follows from what I have just said that media literacy should not be considered a panacea to the problems facing democracies. First defined in the 1990s, "media literacy" is the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create various kinds of media. As defined by UNESCO, it now includes all competencies related to information, media and digital technologies. As fears regarding disinformation and generative AI persist, the importance of these competencies is only increasing and yet there is a lack of consensus about what constitutes media literacy and how it should be delivered. In formal education, for example, media literacy is often reduced to simply using digital technologies. Moreover, there is an urgent need to deliver media literacy to segments of the population across the life course.

In this regard, Media Literacy Ireland, as a national and voluntary association facilitated by Coimisiún na Meán, has been very successful in mobilising a range of stakeholders to develop and support media literacy campaigns including the national Be Media Smart campaign. There are, of course, limits to what a voluntary association can achieve. Notably, Finland has a state agency with responsibility for providing media literacy education. Tied to the Ministry of Education and Culture, it promotes educational practices for children, young people and adults. Thanks in part to the quality of the education system and the long tradition of teaching media literacy, Finland is considered highly resilient to information manipulation.

Clearly, education and the education system have an important role to play in maintaining healthy democracies. As the pragmatic philosopher John Dewey wrote more than a century ago “democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife”. In other words, a quality education system that meets the needs of the population is necessary if people are to realise their rights, responsibilities and potential as democratic citizens.

In conclusion, the message I wish to leave the committee with is that this year of elections will come and go but the policies that are put in place now need to serve democracy over the long term.