With national elections coming up on October 29th, the Netherlands’ competition watchdog will summon 12 major online platforms—including TikTok, Facebook, and X—for a high-stakes meeting to address the spread of ‘disinformation’ and ‘harmful content’ during the campaign.
Also joining the talks are representatives from the European Commission, national regulators, and civil society groups, as concerns mount over election integrity in the digital space.
The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), which enforces the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) in the Netherlands, will host the roundtable on September 15th. ACM director Manon Leijten emphasized that, under the DSA, platforms designated as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) “must implement transparent and diligent policies regarding the content on their platforms and take effective measures against illegal content.”
The ACM had already reached out to the platforms in July, reminding them of their DSA obligations and requesting details on their strategies to protect electoral integrity. The upcoming meeting aims to assess their plans to combat risks such as hate speech, foreign interference, and disinformation.
The regulator is also pressing platforms to explain how they’re protecting users from false or misleading information ahead of the election. Under EU rules, reporting illegal content should be straightforward for everyone, and platforms are required to respond promptly and transparently. The ACM is urging users to report directly to the regulator if they believe a platform has mishandled a complaint.
But who determines what is legal and what is not? The Czech Republic is also having elections in October, and with less than three months to go before the Czech parliamentary elections, a new study by the Central European Digital Media Observatory (CEDMO) shows that 41% of voters believe Brussels is likely to interfere in the October vote. The survey comes amid forecasts of a landslide victory for Andrej Babiš’s ANO party, a founding member of the Patriots for Europe (PfE) group, which could oust Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s deeply unpopular, pro-EU government.
EU interference would not be unheard of, judging by recent European elections. Romania’s case was well reported, as the president of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, was actively involved in the presidential runoff, openly backing Nicușor Dan against his political opponent based on Dan’s pro-EU stance. Brussels is always quick to denounce suspected election interference by Russia or China—but less concerned if they are the ones doing it, in the name of ‘European values.’
Already last year, freedom of expression and human rights organizations ARTICLE 19, Access Now, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged then-European Commissioner Thierry Breton to ensure that enforcement of the DSA is grounded in evidence rather than political agendas. Legal advocacy group ADF International warned earlier this year that
by mandating the removal of broadly defined “harmful” content, this legislation sets the stage for widespread censorship, curtailing lawful and truthful speech under the guise of compliance and safety.
A 2024 report by the Future of Free Speech think tank at Vanderbilt University found that between 87.5% and 99.7% of comments removed under the DSA on Facebook and YouTube in France, Germany, and Sweden were actually legally permissible. With Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration Party for Freedom (PVV) surging in the polls, the Commission could very well be tempted to push their own narratives—and silence those of the PVV—to put a pro-EU government in power in October.
