"It is our responsibility to help the" fourth power "- journalism is the backbone of democracy," said Bulgarian commissioner for digital economy and society Mariya Gabriel in an interview with the Belgian economic daily L'Eco quoted by the Sofia office of the European Commission.

"The approach to fake news in social networks has to turn from national to European," she said, adding that she would propose a common strategy in the spring of 2018 to address this phenomenon.

A high-level expert group should identify good practices to combat fake news. These already exist, such as "trusted flaggers" to voluntarily false flag YouTube content or so-called "trusted flaggers", "fact checkers" to check the facts. "It is up to us to judge what added value the EU can bring," said Commissioner Gabriel.

In the interview, she also reported that on January 9th, she organized a meeting in Brussels with representatives of 30 internet platforms, from the largest to the smallest, dedicated to illegal online content. "We will give preference to voluntary measures and regular dialogue," explains the Bulgarian commissioner for the digital economy and the digital society.

"We require transparency from platforms so that the consumer is aware of what is defined as illegal content, secondly, cooperate with police and judicial authorities, and finally - we want to give citizens the opportunity to report,"  said Mariya Gabriel.