The institutions remain alert, although the powers ultimately rest with the Member States
BRUSSELS, June 1 () –
The European elections from June 6 to 9 will be the biggest test to date for the European Union in the face of disinformation and manipulation orchestrated by Russia, in the face of elections that come in a context of growing interference to which European institutions have responded with legislation and extreme coordination of the 27 in the face of incidents.
The alarms went off definitively last April when Belgium announced, together with the Czech Republic, that it was investigating attempts at Russian interference through ‘Voice of Europe’, an online media based in Prague that directs systematic media manipulation campaigns focused on the war in Ukraine. . The next step was to activate the Integrated Political Response, an internal mechanism to promote the exchange of information between EU members in the face of interference in the face of the elections.
The issue has returned to the fore in the middle of the electoral campaign with searches in offices at the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels and Strasbourg due to the alleged involvement of advisors from far-right forces in the Russian plot that seeks to influence the European elections. This weeks after another collaborator of the German MEP of the ultra Alternative for Germany (AfD) Maximilian Krah was arrested for Chinese espionage. Krah, who left the AfD executive, sparked controversy again in May after questioning whether all SS agents were criminals.
All the community institutions in Brussels agree in pointing out that there is an increase in disinformation and manipulation activity in many of the EU Member States and, although European sources explain that there is no concerted action throughout the bloc, there are more campaigns. of disinformation in all countries and these have increasingly sophisticated content that makes use of the latest technologies, such as ‘deepfake’ or Artificial Intelligence.
“The digital world does not have Member States,” explain the sources who emphasize that content is produced on the Internet that crosses different networks and platforms to reach different audiences within the EU. This being the case, EU experts emphasize that it is not just a question of quantity, which is on the rise, but of the quality of the campaigns and in this sense, all eyes are looking at Russia.
“With regard to the European elections, our main focus if we look at state actors is Russia, very clearly, because it is where we see the most activity,” explain the European sources consulted.
Moscow was directly targeted by the European Commission in the latest sanctions against media outlets accused of disseminating propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine. Then ‘Voice of Europe’ was banned, but also ‘RIA Novosti’, ‘Izvestija’ and ‘Rossiyskaya Gazeta’ were added to a ‘black list’ that includes the Russian agency ‘Sputnik’ and the TV channel from 2022. ‘Russia Today’ television, all accused of being under Kremlin control.
Brussels considers that Russia is behind “continuous and concerted actions of propaganda and manipulation of information directed against civil society in the EU and neighboring countries.” These practices represent a “significant and direct threat to public order and security” of the bloc, since they can end up discrediting the elections or promoting hoaxes about the count, the candidates or the subsequent negotiations to renew the Commission and Council.
FIGHT DISINFORMATION FROM THE EU
In this context, the European Parliament has been warning of this trend since 2019 and has pointed out Russia and China, but also Qatar and Morocco, as the main actors behind the interference. In its latest resolution on the matter, just two months before the elections, the European Parliament stressed that the EU’s response to these threats can only be effective “if it is based on a transversal political approach, covering different matters and in the long term.” carried out jointly by the EU and its Member States”.
The last legislature launched several parliamentary commissions dedicated to analyzing cases of foreign interference or espionage through the Pegasus program, although the ultimate powers to respond to this phenomenon rest with the Member States. The EU is guided by the principle that disinformation in the digital environment is difficult to stop, but the risk must be mitigated and preparedness increased for the intensification of malignant activity at key moments such as the European elections.
Thus, in 2015 the EU set up its division within the External Action Service (EEAS) on strategic communication with which it analyzes disinformation dynamics in Europe. Since then it has identified and dismantled more than 17,000 cases of manipulation relating to different Member States.
Precisely in the annual report on trends in disinformation published by the EEAS in January of this year, it insists that in the context of elections, combating this phenomenon means preserving the common public space in which free debate can be held, emphasizing that according to When it comes time to vote, attention should focus on providing timely, accurate and transparent electoral information that facilitates the debate of ideas.
Through European legislation, Brussels wants to put a stop to the spread of disinformation by reinforcing the role of platforms, which with the latest digital directives are obliged to control content more and combat disinformation, while the regulations on political advertising approved weeks before of the elections increases transparency over paid content, and prohibits foreign entities from sponsoring political advertising prior to an election or a referendum.
In any case, with regard to response to incidents, it is the responsibility of the Member States to have internal response teams specialized in threat analysis and in coordinating with interested actors, creating specific forums or organizations to exchange information and coordinate responses. . Brussels also insists on implementing internal and external communication protocols, early warning channels and systems and working on the application of internal and external protocols to respond with concrete actions when an incident is identified.
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