Page 5 - Democracy Action News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

On Wednesday, MEPs called for democratic oversight of tech giants to safeguard freedom of expression. In a debate with Secretary of State for European Affairs Ana Paula Zacarias from the Portuguese Presidency of the Council, and Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová, almost all speakers criticised the vast power of social media platforms and their worrying impact on politics and freedom of speech. Citing various decisions taken by the platforms to censor content or accounts, a large majority in the chamber highlighted the lack of clear rules governing such decisions and the lack of transp...

As part of a wider bid to clamp down on harmful content on the internet, the European Commission has urged major digital platforms to take measures to de-monetise disinformation online. Disinformation should not occupy a “prominent place” online, said Věra Jourová, the Commission’s Vice-President for values and transparency. If they were less visible, these types of content wouldn’t attract as much money in advertising revenue as they do now, she said on Wednesday (27 January) during a debate in the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee. However, any decision by platform...

Indivisible Yolo plans six weeks of action Those who are thrilled to see President Biden and Vice-President Harris safely sworn in but worried about losing momentum for positive change can join Indivisible Yolo for six weeks of action to work toward rebalancing power by securing voting rights, fixing the Senate and depoliticizing the courts. Indivisible Yolo will host a virtual “Fixing Our Democracy Action Hour” from 2 to 3 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 31 to March 7, building on the phonebank community that was instrumental in electing Biden and flipping the Senate. Participants will learn about ke...

Digital Empire in the Making Law and Justice Party's Conquest of Polish Traditional and Digital Media 12 January 2021 By acquiring local media Law and Justice secured its hegemony over the Polish digital landscape. However, PKN Orlen’s takeover of the Polish local private media could serve as a real-life stress-test for European lawmakers. The last two months of 2020 turned out to be very eventful in Polish politics. While most of the attention was focused on the EU Multi-annual Financial Framework negotiations and the dispute over the rule of law conditionality mechanism, another piece of ...

MEP Melbarde urges government to allocate funding for media from Recovery and Resilience Facility 2020-12-15 LETA/TBT Staff RIGA - The government should allocate financing from the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility also to the media, European Parliament member Dace Melbarde (National Alliance), who is a vide chair of the EU Parliament's Culture and Education Committee, told LETA.  The MEP noted that at the beginning of December, the European Commission adopted two important action plans, enabling the mass media to apply for funding under various programs on the EU and natio...