{"id":458810,"date":"2026-07-03T11:36:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/03\/philip-morris-contro-le-accuse-di-stampa-di-aver-truccato-con-lia-la-consultazione-ue-sul-tabacco\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:07:19","slug":"philip-morris-rejects-press-claims-it-rigged-the-eu-tobacco-consultation-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/03\/philip-morris-rejects-press-claims-it-rigged-the-eu-tobacco-consultation-with-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Morris rejects press claims it \u2018rigged\u2019 the EU tobacco consultation with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 One in three responses to the European Commission’s public consultation on stricter tobacco legislation is said to have been generated by artificial intelligence. The allegation<\/strong> \u2013 which is worrying because it also casts doubt on the integrity of a democratic instrument such as the EU\u2019s public consultations \u2013 comes from two Dutch broadcasters, Pointer KRO-NCRV<\/a> and NOS<\/a>, which point the finger at Philip Morris International<\/strong>. According to their investigations, the tobacco multinational is alleged to have acted \u201cin a rather underhand manner\u201d through the ‘Your Voice, Your Choice\u2019 platform, which the company launched to encourage participation in the consultation. In fact, it is alleged to have directed users, via QR codes on yellow posters displayed in tobacco stores and the IQOS website, to a tool offering around 50 pre-defined responses, almost all of which opposed stricter regulations on flavourings, nicotine pouches, filters, and advertising. <\/p>\n

When the platform was launched in May of last year, Philip Morris had defined<\/a> \u2018Your Voice. Your Choice\u2019 as a tool to facilitate democratic participation in EU public consultations. \u201cWe are offering the \u2018Your Voice. Your Choice’ platform<\/strong>, designed to make it easier for individuals to engage in public consultations,<\/strong>\u201d the multinational firm had said in a statement. It had added that the platform \u201cuses an artificial intelligence tool to help users express their opinions, guiding them in structuring and preparing their submissions. Importantly, users remain fully in control: they can edit the output, and what they ultimately write\u2014and whether they choose to submit a response at all \u2013 it is entirely up to them. Contributions remain the user\u2019s own at every stage,” according to the company’s statement.<\/p>\n

The European Union is working to revise<\/a><\/span><\/span> the tobacco legislation by amending the Tobacco Products Directive and the Tobacco Advertising Directive. Brussels is set on tightening the rules on products such as e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco. It is standard practice for the Commission, at stages such as these in the drafting of new regulations, to seek the views of citizens and businesses. In this case, over 80,000 responses have been received<\/a>. Pointer has \u201csubmitted over 65,000 responses from fifteen EU countries to the Pangram<\/a> artificial intelligence detector\u201d to determine whether, and if so which, had been generated by AI. \u201cAfter Portugal, and just ahead of France<\/strong>, the highest proportion of AI-generated responses comes from us<\/strong>. Of the 786 Dutch responses, 71 per cent were almost certainly written entirely by AI. For all responses from the fifteen EU countries, this percentage stands at 35 per cent,\u201d he explains.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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“By way of comparison, in 97 per cent of these types of consultations, the number of responses remains below one thousand. Our research shows that the huge number of responses to the tobacco bill is largely attributable to an artificial intelligence model; the vast majority of Dutch responses appear to be linked to an artificial intelligence campaign by Philip Morris (PMI),\u201d the Pointer article noted. According to the National Committee Against Smoking<\/a><\/strong>, France\u2019s oldest association for the prevention of smoking<\/strong>, the high number of responses<\/strong> to the EU Commission\u2019s public consultation \u201cmay have been perceived as a sign of unprecedented civic mobilisation, but in reality it masks a manipulation campaign orchestrated by the tobacco industry.<\/strong>\u201d
<\/span><\/span> Philip Morris International\u2019s response was not long in coming. \u201cWe reaffirm our commitment to informing and facilitating the participation of EU citizens and stakeholders in the democratic process<\/strong>, as well as to using technology to support this objective. Users of the Voice tool retained full control over their contributions at all times: they were free to edit the text and decide what to include or exclude,\u201d the company said. \u201cAnti-tobacco lobbyists are attempting to discredit thousands of citizens and stakeholders who chose to take part in the consultation<\/strong> on the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) \u2013 with or without the support of artificial intelligence \u2013 by spreading fake news,\u201d it added. According to the company, \u201ctheir aim is clear: to delegitimise viewpoints that challenge their preferred narrative<\/strong>, diverting attention away from the outcome of the consultation and focusing it on a contrived controversy.\u201d Furthermore, \u201cwhat is at stake is the right of stakeholders and citizens to participate in the democratic decision-making process<\/strong> without being ignored or silenced because their views are inconvenient for a particular ideological agenda.\u201d In this context, \u201cPMI remains committed to transparency, to the participation of people and stakeholders, and to ensuring that individuals have the tools and opportunities to engage with EU policymakers and make their voices heard\u201d, it concludes.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to an investigation by the Dutch outlets Pointer and NOS, this would amount to 30 per cent of all responses. The company’s reply: \u201cWe are committed to facilitating participation\u201d, while \u201cthe goal of anti-tobacco lobbyists is to discredit viewpoints that challenge their preferred narrative\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7874,"featured_media":458794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30961],"tags":[28074,34705,34706,28973,34707,29011,33394],"class_list":["post-458810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salute-en","tag-commissione-en","tag-consultazione-pubblica-ue","tag-nos","tag-philip-morris-en","tag-pointer-kro-ncrv","tag-tabacco-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458811,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458810\/revisions\/458811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}