THE STATE AGAINST "DISINFORMATION"

The National Security Council, in its meeting on October 6, 2020, approved the Procedure for action against disinformation, published on November 5 in BOE-A-2020-13663¹. Given that the Procedure was questioned from the first moment, the Presidency of the Government published a clarifying press release², although it is not binding.

This Procedure does not have the force of law, and is only an update of another one already in force. It links with two basic documents of the European Commission: the Action Plan against Disinformation³ (December 2018), and the Action Plan for Democracy (which ended its consultation period in 2020)^4,5. The first was the starting point for European action in this field and focused on electoral interference, in line with concerns about Russian misinformation in the 2016 US elections⁶. The second is broader, also addressing issues such as the pluralism of the media and freedom of the press, as well as reflecting the infodemic resulting from the SARS-CoV-2. The European Union has asked member states to adopt their own national strategy in order to achieve better coordination in this field, and each country has decided how to act.

Although Brussels has supported this text as it has been drawn up in the BOE⁷, other EU countries, such as Germany (which gives guidelines, recommended by the UN, to the public to recognize disinformation⁸)⁹ or France (which has established bodies of independent verification)¹⁰, have tackled the problem more democratically.

Thus, criticisms of the Spanish Procedure arise from various press associations and groups for various reasons::

Although Moncloa’s explanatory note speaks of “avoiding foreign interference”, this is not reflected in the BOE. But neither does it mention the creation of false news within the Spanish State¹¹.
On disinformation: it will be prosecuted by the “competent public authorities”, dependent on the Government, through procedures not defined in the text of the BOE.
It is not specified how to act against misinformation and those responsible for them. Disinformation is not illegal¹².
It is also not clear that disinformation, beyond specific cases, is a national security problem. In such cases, there are already mechanisms of action by the Intelligence Services¹³.
The control of information by government agencies may violate article 20 of the Spanish Constitution¹⁴.
The journalistic integrity of the mainstream media is not questioned.

Control of information has always been a powerful tool. And currently, with the rise of the Social Networks (whose importance, by the way, the Procedure obviates), it is even more so. However, there are numerous international initiatives, both public^15,16 and private¹⁷, that seek to provide the necessary tools to the population so that it can distinguish the true from the false on its own¹⁸. However, the attempts to make a society less and less critical of the established power^19,20 should make us pay attention to any setback of freedoms²¹. There are ways to question power²². Because being critical will always be at the bottom of every human being! It is in our power, more than ever, to find the most truthful information! Just for a second … and think²³.

1 https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2020-13663
2 https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2020-13663
3 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/eu-communication-disinformation-euco-05122018_en.pdf
4 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/eu-communication-disinformation-euco-05122018_en.pdf
5 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/eu-communication-disinformation-euco-05122018_en.pdf
6 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/eu-communication-disinformation-euco-05122018_en.pdf
7 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/eu-communication-disinformation-euco-05122018_en.pdf
8 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/eu-communication-disinformation-euco-05122018_en.pdf
9 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/eu-communication-disinformation-euco-05122018_en.pdf
10 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/eu-communication-disinformation-euco-05122018_en.pdf
11 https://www.rsf-es.org/espana-rsf-advierte-de-que-el-plan-contra-la-desinformacion-del-gobierno-es-una-amenaza-potencial-contra-la-libertad-de-prensa/
12 http://libertadinformacion.cc/desinformando-sobre-la-desinformacion-por-joan-barata/
13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TrEByYwaec&feature=youtu.be
14 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
15 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
16 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
17 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
18 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
19 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
20 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
21 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
22 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html
23 https://www.laconstitucion.es/articulo-20-de-la-constitucion-espanola.html