Prize winners in the state parliament: Rhineland-Palatinate talents fight against disinformation

Prize winners in the state parliament: Rhineland-Palatinate talents fight against disinformation

The award ceremony for the 72nd European competition took place today in the Mainz state parliament. Over 6,300 students from 89 schools in Rhineland-Palatinate were involved in the competition, and the event attracted numerous invited guests. The winners of the 82 first state prizes, which strengthen the importance of political education and European awareness, were particularly honored.

Among those present were high-ranking representatives such as the State Minister for Education, Sven Teuber, and State Parliament Vice President Matthias Lammert. In his speech, Teuber emphasized the central role of defending democratic values, while Lammert praised the commitment of the participants and said that the competition impressively demonstrated how relevant Europe is for young people.

Presentation of the winners

The award ceremony also included a panel discussion, rounded off by presentations by Julia Goldenbaum from the Max-Slevogt-Gymnasium and Alessandro Laudani from the Evangelisches Trifels-Gymnasium. Julia impressed the audience with a poetry slam about the influence of populists on opinion formation. Alessandro and his classmate Philipp Klimek presented a video clip that dealt with the problem of misinformation on social platforms.

Dr. Norbert Herhammer from the European Union of Rhineland-Palatinate pointed out in his speech that Europe is facing various challenges, including Russia's attack on Ukraine, which violates international law. He underlined the need for Europe's strategic autonomy at a time when disinformation poses an ever-growing threat.

EU strategies against disinformation

In this context, it is important to take into account the European Union's strategies to combat disinformation. The EU bases its analysis on extensive empirical studies and has launched the High Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation. This group defines disinformation and develops recommended actions to combat the problem.

The EU is pursuing various approaches, including voluntary commitments by large digital platforms to curb misinformation. Facebook and Google are key players in the digital infrastructure and are committed to minimizing the way disinformation spreads. A code of conduct has been drawn up to ensure protection against false information.

• Plattformen müssen in Technologien investieren, die die Verbreitung korrekter Informationen fördern.
• Facebook hat ein Archivsystem für politische Werbung eingerichtet, während Google ein durchsuchbares Werbeanzeigen-Archiv plant.
• Beide Unternehmen haben sich dazu verpflichtet, mehr Transparenz bei politischen Werbeanzeigen zu schaffen.

Despite these measures, the effectiveness of EU strategies against disinformation remains in question. Critics criticize, among other things, the low budget of the EU East StratCom Task Force, which works against Russian disinformation campaigns. Since its inception in 2015, over 4,500 cases have been identified, but it emphasizes that further steps are needed to ensure the sustainability of the measures.

Given these challenges, it is clear that defending democratic values ​​and fighting disinformation are closely linked. The events in the Mainz state parliament and the problems that are exacerbated by the digital space show how important it is to develop awareness of these issues across society. For more information about this, see the articles from bm.rlp.de and bpb.de.