POLITICO photo-illustration (Source images by Getty Images) Matter of debate Macron’s fake news law will threaten democracy

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PARIS — Emmanuel Macron is the latest political leader to hop on the anti-fake news bandwagon, as regulators lose patience and promise to crack down on the proliferation of online disinformation across the bloc.

The French president has proposed a law that would include measures to make the backers of sponsored content transparent and empower the government to either scrap “fake news” from the internet or even block websites altogether during political elections.

It’s not a good idea.

The proposed “emergency legal action” would enable an incumbent government to step in during the elections and constrain the freedom of expression of its opponents, be they citizens writing on their blogs or accredited journalists writing for major publications.

It may seem counterproductive to take issue with the idea that the dissemination of false news poses a threat to public order. Europe has been confronted by countless disruptive and dangerous examples of it, especially during elections. But limiting news output to “true” — essentially state-sanctioned — information could pose an even greater threat.

To make matters worse, a coercive approach will almost certainly fall short of addressing the real issue.

Anti-fake news task forces, such as Europe’s EU Mythbusters, have shown that fake news can be fought with fact-checking. But the problem with fake news is not so much its long-lasting presence on the web, but its initial appearance. As soon as it goes online, the harm is done.

To call on an interim relief judge — the fastest form of serving justice — to act, will always be too little too late. Evidence suggests it could even backfire: qualifying a piece of news as fake and thereby giving it greater publicity gives the news piece a boost and spreads its reach even further.

Online disinformation is a complex phenomenon that regulators have yet to really master. It’s therefore too soon to create regulation that can be effective.

Fake news is a symptom of deeper structural problems in our societies and media environments. To counter it, Europe’s politicians need to take into account the underlying, self-reinforcing mechanisms that make this old phenomenon so pervasive today. Only by taking a step back can we examine the vulnerabilities these fake news narratives exploit.

Part of the problem is the fact that tech companies such as Facebook and Google have appropriated — and monopolized— the online advertising market. This has led to a pay-as-you-go business model, in which advertisers are only charged when a page is viewed or clicked on. This ensures that social media companies have no incentive to playing the role of arbiters of truth.

Nonetheless, for the fight to be effective, the push needs to come from companies themselves.

Facebook, for example, is testing an innovative approach whereby it alters the environment in which a disputed, or outright fake, story is presented, rather than remove it from the site entirely. It now features “related articles” beneath the story in question and invites readers to access additional information, including pieces that have been greenlighted by third-party fact checkers.

To be sure, this opens the question of algorithmic accountability — exactly how are those related articles and alternative views are chosen? But it is a worthy experiment. New research suggests exposure to alternative viewpoints has a tangible effect on readers.

Unlike the prescriptive approach pioneered by Germany and now embraced by Macron, providing “related articles” doesn’t necessarily imply any editorial judgment about their truthfulness. But it does force readers to encounter facts and other points of view more serendipitously, in a way that mirrors the disparity of views in real life.

The emergence of this feature underlines the ability of a platform such as Facebook to seriously engage with a problem as thorny as fake news. It also suggests its readiness to set aside — at least for a while — an obsessive business model based on increasing users' engagement and monetizing their data.

The implementation of such an approach across social networks would set an important precedent. It could help close the gap between what is best for users and the dominant advertising business model.

Macron’s proposed law focuses on the trees rather than the forest. As such, it will remain irrelevant and aggravate the root causes fueling the fake news phenomenon.

Alberto Alemanno is Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at HEC Paris and the author of “Lobbying for Change: Find Your Voice to Create a Better Society.”