Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference including disinformation

The Delegation of the European Union has invited participants from the media, civil society and national authorities to participate in a round table on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) including disinformation. On this occasion, two European experts made a presentation on the current information environment and the spread of information disorder. They also spoke about how to build a country’s resilience to this new challenge. Their presentation was followed by a plenary discussion.

H.E.Mr Vincent Degert, Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Seychelles stated :

– “Disinformation is false or misleading content that is spread with an intention to deceive or secure economic or political gain, and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is constantly evolving and becoming more complex. It is present across different realms of the society including migration, health and politics. If lying is a problem, the bigger problem is that we believe in those lies. Disinformation is hence a “whole-of-society” problem. Therefore, the response has to be based on a “whole-of-society’’ approach aimed at raising awareness of the media, civil society and individuals on how disinformation works, including through education and media literacy. Therefore, I am really glad that we have managed to organise a round table on this increasingly topical subject with two European experts, namely Mr Siim Kumpas from the East Stratcomm Task Force set up within the European External Action Service to address Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns and Mr Hannes Krause, Indian Ocean Coordinator of the EU-funded Cyber4Dev programme.”

The Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Mauritius has organised a round table on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) including disinformation. The round table, which gathered 15 participants including national authorities, media outlets, academics and members of the EU-Mauritius Youth Forum, was facilitated by two European experts, who were in Mauritius this week for a training on disinformation that took place on 7-8 March.

They made a presentation on:
– Conceptual introduction to the current information environment and information disorder
– The role of social media platforms and digital service providers in information disorder and countering disinformation
– Building resilience against disinformation using a whole-of-society approach – The case of Estonia.
Their presentation was followed by a plenary discussion.

The experts were :
– Mr Siim KUMPAS, Policy Officer at the East StratCom Task Force, a Task Force that was set up to address Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns. The East Task Force is one of the three task forces created under the European External Action Service (EEAS) Strategic Communications and Information Analysis Division. The Division is leading the work on addressing foreign disinformation, information manipulation and interference and has a mandate to analyse the information environment in order to enable EU foreign policy implementation and protect its values and interests. Before that, Siim KUMPAS was an adviser in the Strategic Communication Department of the Estonian Government Office being responsible for designing and implementing proactive measures and building resilience against disinformation in Estonia.
– Mr Hannes KRAUSE, Indian Ocean Region Coordinator for the Cyber4Dev programme. Cyber Resilience for Development (Cyber4Dev) is a European Union project designed to promote cyber-resilience and cybersecurity in order to protect public and private enterprises across the globe. Before that, Hannes KRAUSE has worked as the Head of Strategic Communication in the Estonian Government Office being responsible for building resilience against disinformation in Estonia and advising the government on issues relating to strategic communication. Earlier, he has worked as Head of Policy and Analysis for the Estonian Information System Authority.

The EU and disinformation
The spread of both disinformation and misinformation can have a range of harmful consequences, such as threatening democracies, polarising debates, and putting the health, security and environment of EU citizens at risk.

Large-scale disinformation campaigns are a major challenge for Europe and require a coordinated response from EU countries, EU institutions, online platforms, news media and EU citizens. The EU has developed a number of initiatives to tackle disinformation. The European External Action Service (EEAS) has created a specific unit – the Strategic Communication, Task Forces and Information Analysis Division (StratComm Division) to address foreign information manipulation and interference, including disinformation. The EEAS has recently published the first report on “Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference” threats. This first edition is informed by the work of the EEAS StratCom division in 2022. Based on a first sample of specific Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference cases, it outlines how building on shared taxonomies and standards can fuel our collective understanding of the threat and help inform appropriate countermeasures in the short to the long term.