European Commission Cites Integrity Institute in Its Elections Integrity Guidance
Hi! You are receiving multiple newsletters from me this week because there is just so much going on.
At the Integrity Institute, elections integrity online is a core pillar of our work. For more than a year, our community – led by Katie Harbath and Glenn Ellingson with contributions from over 30 of our members with elections integrity experience – has been working to put together our recommended best practices for protecting elections integrity online.
Yesterday, I shared the following update with the Institute’s member-powered elections integrity working group:
Our elections work was used and cited by the European Commission in their guidelines for platforms on the integrity of electoral processes!
These guidelines, just released today, represent what the EC expects from very large platforms in regards to protecting elections. The EC guidelines instruct platforms to follow “existing best practices such as those documented in the Election Integrity Programme of the Integrity Institute” and also uses our examples of how platforms should collaborate with third parties and relevant stakeholders. Overall the guidelines are well aligned to the best practices briefings we published last year, which we are thrilled to see.
It is exceedingly rewarding to see our community’s hard work and expertise being recognized and creating legible impact! As a member-powered think tank, sometimes the impact we’d like to see from our work can be difficult to observe. Yesterday’s announcement from the European Commission was not expected; we were not in coordination with the Commission and this was truly “organic” in the sense that the Commission found the Institute’s work, liked it, and didn’t tell us until after its announcement. So Katie, Glenn, and all the Institute members who contributed to this work should feel very proud for this tangible sign of progress, impact, and recognition.
Have you been following the Institute’s work? We’d love to know! Or, surprise shoutouts like the European Commission’s yesterday is equally welcomed!
-Jeff
