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the new Bumble now. Why

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the EU's Vice President isn't worried

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about moon landing conspiracies on YouTube.

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During a tour of Silicon Valley,

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EU Vice President Vera Yurova said

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she expects tech giants to prioritize

1:15

stamping out content that could distort

1:17

democracy. By Puresh Dave. When

1:21

European Union Vice President Vera Yurova

1:24

met with YouTube CEO Neil Mohan

1:26

in California last week, they

1:28

fell to talking about the long-running conspiracy

1:30

theory that the moon landings were fake.

1:33

YouTube has faced calls from some users

1:35

and advocacy groups to remove videos that

1:37

question the historic missions. Like

1:39

other videos denying accepted science, they

1:41

have been boosted from recommendations and

1:43

have a Wikipedia link added to

1:46

direct viewers to debunking context. But

1:49

as Mohan spoke about those measures, Yurova

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made something clear. Fighting

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lunar lunatics or flat earthers shouldn't be

1:55

a priority. If the people want to

1:57

believe it, let them do, she said.

2:00

As the official charged with protecting

2:02

Europe's democratic values, she thinks it's

2:04

more important to make sure YouTube

2:06

and other big platforms don't spare

2:08

a euro that could be invested

2:10

in fact-checking or product changes to

2:12

curb faults or misleading content that

2:14

threatens the EU's security. We

2:17

are focusing on the narratives, which have

2:19

the potential to mislead voters, which could

2:21

create big harm to society, Jorova tells

2:24

Wired in an interview. Unless

2:26

conspiracy theories could lead to deaths, violence,

2:28

or pogroms, she says don't expect the

2:30

EU to be demanding action against them.

2:33

Content like the recent fake news report announcing

2:36

that Poland is mobilizing its troops in the

2:38

middle of the election? That better

2:40

not catch on as truth online. More

2:43

than 60 countries are holding elections in 2024. Throughout

2:47

the year, Wired will be tracking every

2:49

instance of AI's use in and around

2:51

those campaigns. In Jorova's view,

2:54

her conversation with Mohan and similar

2:56

discussions she held last week with

2:58

the CEOs of TikTok, Ex and

3:00

Meta, show how the EU is

3:02

helping companies understand what it takes

3:04

to counter disinformation, as is

3:07

now required under the bloc's tough new

3:09

Digital Services Act. Its

3:11

requirements include that starting this year,

3:13

the internet's biggest platforms, including YouTube,

3:15

have to take steps to combat

3:17

disinformation or risk fines up to

3:19

6% of their global sales.

3:22

Civil liberties activists have been concerned

3:25

that the DSA ultimately could enable

3:27

censorship by the bloc's more authoritarian

3:29

regimes. A strong showing

3:32

by far-right candidates in the EU's

3:34

parliamentary elections taking place later this

3:36

week also could lead to its

3:38

uneven enforcement. YouTube

3:40

spokesperson Nicole Bell says the company

3:42

is aligned with Jorova on preventing

3:44

egregious real-world harm and also removing

3:47

content that misleads voters on how

3:49

to vote or encourages interference in

3:51

the democratic processes. Our

3:54

teams will continue to work around the

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clock, Bell says, of monitoring problematic videos

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about this week's EU. elections. They

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code wired. Yorova,

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who expects her five year term to

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end later this year, in part because

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her Czech political party A.N.O. is no

5:26

longer in power at home in Chechnya

5:29

to renominate her, contends that

5:31

the DSA is not meant to enable

5:33

anything more than appropriate moderation of the

5:35

most egregious content. She

5:37

doesn't expect Mohan or any other

5:39

tech executive to go a centimeter

5:41

beyond what the law prescribes. Under

5:44

usage, overshooting on the basis of the

5:46

EU legislation would be a big failure

5:48

and a big danger, she says. On

5:51

the other hand, she acknowledges that if

5:53

the companies aren't seen to be stepping

5:55

up to mitigate disinformation, then

5:57

some influential politicians have threatened to.

6:00

seek stiffer rules that could border

6:02

on outright censorship. I hate

6:04

this idea, she says. We don't want

6:06

this to happen. But with

6:08

the DSA offering guidelines more than bright

6:11

lines, how are platforms to know when

6:13

to act? Yorova's

6:15

Democracy Tour in Silicon Valley, as

6:17

she calls it, is part of

6:20

facilitating a dialogue on policy, and

6:22

she expects social media researchers, experts,

6:24

and the press to all contribute

6:26

to figuring out the fuzzy borders

6:28

between free expression and destructive disinformation.

6:32

She jokes that she doesn't want to be seen

6:34

as the European Minister of the Truth, as tempting

6:36

as that title may be, leaving

6:38

it to politicians alone to define what's acceptable

6:40

online would pave the way to hell, she

6:43

says. Yorova does

6:45

have some clear preferences, though. You

6:47

should do everything to guarantee that lies are

6:49

not the easiest way to get political positions,

6:51

she says. If politicians are

6:54

lying, there should be somebody to say

6:56

immediately, guy, you are lying. Using

6:58

clear lies, especially of the nature that

7:01

increases the hostility and proliferates hate should

7:03

be stopped. Political

7:06

candidates around the world have continued to

7:08

turn to new technologies and social media

7:10

to spread potentially misleading content. She

7:13

says local researchers identified 70 cases

7:15

of deepfakes ahead of recent elections

7:17

in Slovakia. Though the

7:19

impact they had on the vote has not

7:21

been assessed, some audio deepfakes on the eve

7:24

of the vote targeted a pro-Ukraine candidate who

7:26

lost a bid to run the country to

7:28

a pro-Russian opponent. Wired has

7:30

cataloged so far about 50 cases

7:32

of deepfakes across elections globally this

7:34

year. Western

7:36

governments and researchers have attributed some of

7:38

the deepfake surge to Russia. But

7:41

though Yorova is concerned about the alleged

7:43

interference, she also takes it as evidence

7:45

that democracy is working. There

7:47

aren't enough fellow autocrats in Europe for Putin

7:49

to call up to win favor with the

7:52

EU, she reasons. And so instead,

7:54

he has to seed lies and hope they

7:56

sway electorates towards installing leaders who support him.