Elections and disinformation: We need more than alliances / Multimedia Editor's Analysis

The alliance between the National Registry, the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE), and the Colombiacheck website is commendable, forming a coalition that will seek to combat disinformation in the country's electoral processes.

It is very important and relevant that the electoral governing body, in its independence and mission, take action to find ways to reduce the impact of fake news in the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.

In the formula, each entity will contribute significant value: in analyzing the phenomenon, regulating it, identifying and debunking fake news, calling on political parties to commit to this issue, among others.

For my taste, and given the seriousness of the phenomenon, I miss the criminal, police, and sanctioning component.

As long as there is no solid, efficient, and swift legal framework that allows the country to hold digital platforms accountable, pursue the perpetrators, and prosecute the creators of disinformation and the digital platforms that enable it, we will not see a decisive and tangible change in the cancer of disinformation in Colombia.

Disinformation in electoral processes is a business: just like that. There are 'experts' and 'companies' dedicated to creating underhand strategies of fake news, hoaxes, and deception, with an infrastructure that knows how to use these platforms for their deceptions.

Some networks even allow fake news to be advertised, or audiences to be purchased to more effectively impact and spread the hoaxes.

This agreed-upon alliance is a great first step. These are serious, long-standing entities with expertise in democracy, regulation, and disinformation, and they will surely create valuable methodologies and processes.

But faced with a powerful, broad, and vigorous criminal industry, a legal and judicial component commensurate with the problem is required.

There are digital giants, with their social media platforms, that do whatever they want in Colombia, manipulating information, opinions, and press freedom. And while Europe and the United States are working legislatively to contain it, in Colombia we're light years behind. Sad.