Negative campaigning is a particularly worrying trend in respect of electoral campaigns in a number of CoE member states where the campaign atmosphere has been dominated by political polarisation, defamation of political opponents and even hate speech. It is a major challenge to resolutely tackle these excesses without compromising democratic rights such as freedom of expression as a result. Curbing defamation and hate speech on social media and Internet platforms is particularly challenging. The same applies to disinformation operations which aim at harming electoral contestants and undermining the integrity and credibility of elections.