The fight against disinformation is “one of the great battles of our time” and must be fought as “a threat to the security of Europe”, warns the report published yesterday by the European External Action Service (EEA) , which for the first time contains an instruction manual for countering these actions. “Lies have always existed”, but “now many of us are vulnerable, because information circulates at the speed of light and manipulation and interference have become an activity on an industrial scale”, declared the high representative of EU Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, in the presentation of the report.
Those responsible for these actions do not resort to them in a “sporadic” way, but use them “as a strategic instrument of their foreign policy”, warns the document, which states that the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is the public figure most attacked, followed by Borrell himself, while Ukraine is the country against which most actions are launched and Russia, the most active in these practices, along with China. Their goal: “To undermine the credibility of democratic institutions, and exacerbate division and polarization” in Europe, conclude the EEAS experts.
The report analyzes 750 incidents recorded over the last year in Europe – some in Spain around the elections of July 23 – and, with a view to the approaching super election year, proposes measures to contain various degrees (ignore them, contain them, minimize them, or redirect attention) from situations experienced, for example, in the 2020 US presidential election, in which some described techniques and actions fit the behavior of Trump before, during and after the election.
Everything points to the fact that disinformation actions will intensify as the dates of the European elections approach and from Brussels public authorities are advised to take measures to “protect themselves against potential information manipulation and interference” , which are disseminated through various platforms, both classic social networks and Telegram channels and other less well-known channels.
The methods and objectives of these actions, the report explains, are to generate distrust towards official information channels about the elections in favor of unverified ones, to encourage abstention or the casting of invalid votes, to encourage citizen polarization by supporting some political positions and attacking others, create a sense of insecurity (in Spain an official website was cloned to spread a false bomb threat from ETA), or sow doubts about the reliability of the electoral system by spreading false allegations of fraud to ultimately “undermine confidence in democracy as a political system”. “Planning in time is essential to combat electoral manipulation”, advises Borrell.
