On 23 February 2018, five associations, among them IAB Europe, representing the European advertising industry have published an open letter to the European Commission addressing the public consultation on fake news and online disinformation.
The signatories to the paper are aware of the fake news and online disinformation phenomena and are highly concerned by the issue. Since online advertising is the main source of revenue for the diverse media landscape in Europe[1], the stakeholders reaffirm their industry-wide commitment to work towards ensuring that we support quality journalism and cutting off the financial incentives to fake news providers.
The letter comes as part of IAB Europe’s response to the European Commission’s public consultation. The Commission is expected to publish its EU-level strategy regarding this issue in spring 2018.
Read and download the full paper HERE.
[1]IHS Markit, The Economic Contribution of Digital Advertising in Europe (2017), available at: https://datadrivenadvertising.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2017/09/DigitalAdvertisingEconomicContribution_FINAL-1.pdf. The latest research shows that this revenue source makes up more than 81% of the online revenues for publisher’s journalistic content and more than 50% of mobile application revenues.
