By EUvsDisinfo
In November 12, the EU announced the establishment of the European Democracy Shield. The Shield, developed jointly by the European Commission and the European External Action Service, has a robust external dimension and will help empower strong and resilient democracies. Under its first pillar on safeguarding the integrity of the information space, the Joint Communication formulates the EU’s necessary response to the threat of foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). With this initiative, the EU strives to make democracies more resilient against information attacks and interference coming from its adversaries.
As EUvsDisinfo provides evidence for on a daily basis, the information space has become a geopolitical battleground. Through FIMI campaigns, Russia and other foreign actors are trying to destabilise our democracies by manipulating public opinion and interfering in our elections.
Autocratic regimes are not bound by the moral and legal checks that democracies are built upon. They are trying to exploit these by fighting an asymmetric game and spending large sums of money on state propaganda and FIMI operations. We can, and must, fight back. To counter the constant waves of information manipulation operations, the EU needs to strengthen its democratic foundations while building a robust coalition of the willing and able, and thus establish a global defence of like-minded countries and regional partners.
We see the European Democracy Shield as our first line of defence in this effort. It lays out ways to reinforce the three key pillars of democratic governance: the integrity of our shared information space, free and fair elections covered by independent media outlets, and social resilience against disinformation in all its forms.
So far, we have been able to raise awareness and learn about the strategies and tools our adversaries deploy. But detection and threat assessment are not enough. We must bolster our defence and be pro-active, using truth as a sword to take the fight to those deploying manipulative content and tactics against us. We must expose FIMI for what it is and defeat our adversaries by disarming them.
Stepping up the game at home is not enough. The EU will move to counter FIMI globally. Through EU Delegations, Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations, and Member States’ diplomatic missions, the EU seeks to scale up counter-FIMI training and provide effective instruments to staff on the ground.
More is to come. The EU will step up its anti-FIMI cooperation with candidate and potential-candidate countries, with a focus on the EU neighbourhood. We will deepen our collaboration with international entities such as the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism and NATO. We will also move to raise the costs of FIMI campaigns by imposing sanctions and publicly calling out campaigners.
You know you are doing the right thing when your adversary is getting nervous. Predictably, FIMI actors have accused the European Union of autocratic behaviour, smearing the Shield as an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’. A sign our adversaries have become worried.
By EUvsDisinfo
