The European Union will launch a new platform to counter disinformation campaigns by Russia and China amid growing concerns, EU foreign chief Josep Borrell said today.
A so-called information sharing and analysis center within the EU’s foreign services – the European External Action Service (EEAS) – will seek to track information manipulation by foreign actors and coordinate with the 27 EU countries and the wider community of NGOs.
Borrell said, “We need to understand how these disinformation campaigns are organized … to identify the actors of the manipulation.”
An EEAS official said it will be a decentralized platform for real-time information exchange with non-governmental organisations, countries and cyber security agencies, to address the dangers of misinformation and to deal with such problems. There will be better understanding of narratives and quick action.
Nearly a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union continues to block Russian efforts to manipulate and distort information about the war. Kremlin-led propaganda seeking to blame the EU for the global food crisis due to its sanctions has also spread to countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Borrell warned of a “new wave” of disinformation as media outlets spread fabricated images, videos and websites “at five times the speed of light across social networks and messaging services”.
The EU’s current disinformation unit, Stratcom Division, a first report, noted that most foreign information manipulation in 2022 focused on narratives supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian and Chinese diplomatic channels were particularly involved.