During the campaign period, in parallel to informing the public about online behavior that threatens the integrity of the election, we will also alert tech companies about infringement of their rules.

A spokesperson for the European Commission announced on March 16 that signatories to the Code of Conduct on Disinformation have activated the so-called Rapid Response System ahead of the April 12 election in Hungary. This is a standard procedure; the system is activated before every election in an EU member state.

The purpose of the Rapid Response System is to allow organizations that monitor and analyze the online information space to bring to the attention of major online platforms (such as Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, or Google) content, users, or coordinated patterns of behavior that threaten the integrity of elections and violate the platforms’ own internal policies. Of course, any user can report such issues to the platforms at any time. The essence of the Rapid Response System is that during election periods, the platforms give priority to reports from organizations working to ensure the integrity of online campaigns.

Although the Hungarian Digital Media Observatory (HDMO) is not a signatory to the Code of Conduct on Disinformation, as the Hungarian hub of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), it automatically participates in the Rapid Response System.

In the period leading up to the election, we will report to the platforms those irregularities in the online campaign that we regularly bring to the public’s attention in our analyses and articles, and which also violate the platforms’ own rules. We view prohibited and non-transparent online political ads and fake profiles as primary examples of risks that threaten the integrity of the election.

Participants in the Rapid Response System cannot decide on the removal of content or accounts or on other kinds of sanctions. Such decisions are always made by the platforms based on their own rules and procedures, and they bear sole responsibility for them.

For more information visit the: Transparency Center