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The European Commission has labeled a large number of unwelcome political and scientific views as ‘disinformation’ and is forcing social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Linkedin to remove or ‘shadowban’ these expressions. The Commission has also set up an anti-disinformation hub in the Netherlands, Benedmo.eu, which tracks down ‘disinformation’ and reports it to Brussels. “The danger of censorship is there,” says sociologist Jaron Harambam.
“Russian invasion of Ukraine is justified.” “The war in Ukraine has serious negative economic consequences for Europe.” “Masks are useless against Covid-19.” “Climate activists are hypocritical and / or silly.” “Electric vehicles are useless or dangerous.” “Western media such as CNN or BBC spread fake news.” “There is clear evidence that the Sars-Cov-2 virus was developed in a Chinese laboratory.”
These are some examples of statements that have been officially labeled as ‘disinformation’ in a recent report by the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), From the pandemic to the war in Ukraine: a year and a half against disinformation. EDMO is an organization set up by the European Commission that searches for ‘disinformation’ on online media. Fourteen ‘anti-disinformation hubs’ operate under EDMO across the EU. The hub for the Benelux, Benedmo, is located at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum, which is managed by the NPO and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. About forty ‘experts’ are affiliated with Benedmo, who report what they consider to be ‘disinformation’. This includes employees of the University of Amsterdam, VU University, Leiden University, the research collective Bellingcat, two journalists from the KRO-NCRV program Pointer and a board member of the Skepsis foundation, Pepijn van Erp.