The Council of Europe has issued guidelines for digital political campaigning to its 46 member states.

The guides aim to “address the challenges to the fairness and legitimacy” of electoral processes created by new digital techniques.

This includes the possible abusive use of microtargeting, personal data, bots and algorithms, as well as disinformation campaigns.

The guidelines are designed to ensure the transparency of online electoral communication and expenditure, prevent manipulation of the electorate, and ensure that political parties and candidates can compete on equal terms.

They also tackle issues such as data protection, content regulation and media coverage of campaigns.

The recommendation calls for a co-regulatory approach, which would “require states, online platforms and civil society organisations to collaborate to develop appropriate solutions”. This would include independent oversight mechanisms and the adoption of a framework of sanctions for non-compliance.

The guidelines suggest that there is a need for transparency of political and electoral advertising online. Specific recommendations are made related to the transparency of financing and electoral spending through disclosure obligations, the clear identification of campaigners, and the archiving of the advertisements placed or distributed online.

The council said that another critical recommendation concerns the need to establish safeguards against the intentional spread of electoral disinformation.

The guidelines also require that citizens receive information from online platforms on why they are targeted with political ads and that they are able to opt out of such advertising.

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