Lisbon, Dec. 4, 2025 (Lusa) - Carla Martins, member of the Regulatory Council of the Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC), warned on Thursday of the lack of effective preparation to deal with disinformation.

"We are not currently prepared to act effectively against the spread of disinformation," she told Lusa at the event "Public Policies, Young People and Media Education," held at Lusófona University in Lisbon.

Carla Martins believes that the rapid proliferation of disinformation and the time-consuming effort required to combat it contribute to "a very complex problem (...) that is growing throughout Europe".

"At the European level, the threat is growing to such an extent that the mechanisms developed are not proportional to the problem," stressed the ERC representative.

She pointed to large digital platforms as "the centre of the problem, because they allow the distribution of disinformation on a large scale, which increases their responsibility".

In this regard, she advocated a collaborative platform with various entities, as happens during election time, to flag manipulated information "more quickly".

The regulatory body has been investing in collaboration with academic observatories, developing work that began in the European elections, continued in the legislative elections and is now underway for two months in the presidential elections, in partnership with LabCom, from the University of Beira Interior (UBI).

The project tracks and monitors disinformation based on communications from the parties.

In the last legislative elections, 16 incidents were identified, leading the ERC to open 9 cases related to disinformation.

Carla Martins also said that "the more awareness there is of exposure to this type of content, the less effective its dissemination becomes".

PYR/ADB // ADB.

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