Open Letter to Meta’s Nick Clegg
Sir Nick Clegg, President, Global Affairs
Meta Platforms, Inc.
1 Hacker Way,
Menlo Park, CA 94025,
United States
Dear Sir Nick Clegg,
Ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Serbia on 3 April, we, the undersigned, call on Meta to take urgent steps to prevent abuse of their platforms and tackle the spread of disinformation in the Western Balkans.
In countries such as Serbia where traditional media are largely under the control of the state, social media are the last remaining lifeline for independent journalists and voices. As Europe experiences the first major conflict on its soil since the Balkan wars of the 1990s after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the role of these platforms in the wider information war can no longer be ignored. This is especially important in the Balkans, a region where Russian influence is keenly felt and where erosion of democracy is accelerating.
Facebook is by far the most dominant social media platform in the Balkans. In its report ‘Social Media and the Information War in the Balkans’ published this week, the Balkan Free Media Initiative examined the destabilizing effects of social media in Serbia and Republika Srpska, the majority Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). It found that Facebook and other platforms are being manipulated to spread disinformation and attack critical voices in an attempt to consolidate political power.
Meta’s current approach to removing false, misleading and inflammatory content is inadequate. The Balkans may represent a small and complex market, but its importance to regional stability should not be underestimated. It is crucial that social media companies act now to mitigate these problems and by extension support the ability for citizens across the Balkans to engage in meaningful democratic elections.
We call on Meta to apply the following recommendations to improve the quality of the information environment on its platforms:
Expand existing policies for labeling state-controlled or state-affiliated outlets
Introduce greater sanctions for outlets found to repeatedly violate content policies and publish disinformation
Expand the presence of social media companies in the Balkans
Escalate efforts to identify and remove troll and bot accounts
Develop algorithms that promote media outlets with high journalistic and ethical standards
Strengthen capacity to deal with information crises should the security situation deteriorate further in the Western Balkans
Without concerted action by Facebook and others, democracy in the Balkans will continue to suffer with potentially far-reaching consequences for the rest of Europe.
Yours sincerely
Signed by:
Antoinette Nikolova - Director of the Balkan Free Media Initiative
Peter Horrocks CBE - former Director of the BBC World Service and Ofcom Content Board member
Mark Nelson - former Senior Director of the National Endowment for Democracy
Eric Jozsef - correspondent for Libération
Marion Kraske - former Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation office in Bosnia & Herzegovina
John Sweeney - Journalist
Andrea Bonnani - Journalist
Andrey Kovachev - MEP
John Nicolson – MP (UK)
Fabrizio Luciolli – President of the Italian Atlantic Treaty Organisation / Comitato Atlantico Italiano
Radan Kanev – MEP
Tamara Filipović – Journalist
Sabina Castelfranco – Journalist
Marco Galluzzo – RCS MediaGroup
Dr. Solomon Passy – President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria
Šerif Kapetanović – Journalist, N1
Gergana Passy – Digital Champion of Bulgaria, President of PanEuropa Bulgaria, former EU Minister of Bulgaria
Atanas Tchobanov – Bureau for Investigative Reporting and Data (BIRD)
Sonia Kanikova – Journalist, Deutsche Welle
Gerardo Pelosi – Italy Sole 24
Anna Mazzone – Journalist
Stefan Miljuš – Journalist, N1
Aleks Eror – Journalist
