European Elections 2024

The 2nd EEAS Report on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) Threats builds on the 1st Report and completes the work towards a common framework for networked defence against FIMI. This Response Framework proposes to link analysis even more effectively to timely responses, highlighting the importance of cooperation between all stakeholders.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a powerful tool thanks to technological advances, access to large amounts of data, machine learning and increased computing power. The release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 was a new breakthrough in AI. It demonstrated the vast range of possibilities involved in adapting general-purpose AI to a wide array of tasks and in getting generative AI to generate synthetic content based on prompts entered by the user. AI is an opportunity to improve the democratic process in our societies. For example, it can help citizens to gain a better understanding of politics and engage more easily in democratic debate.

Fake news and disinformation are not a new phenomenon. However, in recent years, they have acquired great prominence on the public agenda, conditioning electoral results and generating episodes of political destabilization. Academic interest runs in parallel with the consideration of disinformation as a growing priority for governments and international organizations, due to its geostrategic relevance and its importance for national sovereignty and security. The interference of countries such as Russia or China in other nations’ electoral processes, using new tools and methods to manipulate public opinion and proliferate cyberattacks have led to the creation of agencies or regulations aimed at curbing disinformation in some states. The UN, the EU and other countries’ governments have tried to develop strategies to respond to this growing threat. The pandemic has accelerated the decline of local media, which leaves communities in a state of serious vulnerability. Reliable resources and sources around local information are scarce assets, information is increasingly consumed through social media, and in them disinformation easily proliferates.

Amid escalating geopolitical tensions, deepening political polarisation and widespread adoption of advanced technology, the EU faces the threat of foreign interference. Elections to the European Parliament and in many Member States emphasise the need to defend against foreign interference in a critical time for our democracies.

'Fake news' and disinformation – information deliberately manipulated with the aim of fooling people – have become an increasingly visible global phenomenon. Social media and their personalisation tools have made it easier to spread bogus stories. They often use emotions to capture attention and generate clicks, for economic or ideological reasons. Even young, digital-savvy people find it difficult to identify manipulated news. Significantly, six in ten news items shared on social media were not even read first by the user who shared them. Some 85 % of Europeans see 'fake news' as a problem in their own country, and 83 % view it as a problem for democracy in general. This compass will help you navigate the ocean of information, and find your way through waves of lies and disinformation.

Whereas social media provide individuals with new opportunities to access information, express opinions, and participate in democratic processes, they can also undermine democracy by distorting information, promoting false stories and facilitating political manipulation. This EPRS paper provides an overview of the key risks social media pose to democracy related to surveillance, personalisation, disinformation, moderation and microtargeting. It also discusses key approaches to tackling social media risks to democracy in the context of EU policy.

With the growth of internet penetration, it has become increasingly hard for audiences to determine what information they can trust. They are often exposed to fabricated content that is disseminated with the intent of misleading them. In turn, disinformation causes disruptions in society, especially in the context of elections. This report looks at some of the policy examples that aim to tackle this problem. It starts with an overview of the assessments of the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) for the specific variables that are devoted to the topic. We briefly describe the EU approach to disinformation, and, as a next step, we zoom in on seven EU member states, some of which held elections in the past years or introduced regulations related to disinformation that are worth looking into. The spread of disinformation is typically regulated by non-legislative methods, though a handful of countries have tried to use a legal approach to deal with the phenomenon. Some of the measures are still controversial, mainly because they might affect the freedom of expression.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, identifies new challenges to democratic resilience and electoral processes, systematically mapping the EU responses to counter them. The study focuses both on external and internal challenges and assesses the responses of the Union particularly in the run-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections. It also provides specific policy recommendations to further enhance the protection of democracy in the Union.

CoR Opinion - 05/07/2023
Rapporteur: BRZEZIN Gustaw Marek
Commission: CIVEX
Local and regional media play important role in countering disinformation and therefore they should be supported by local and regional authorities. Only by working together, European, national, local and regional level, we can prevent, detect and expose manipulation of information. We must broaden the knowledge of representatives of local and regional authorities in raising public awareness to the mechanisms of disinformation.

Disinformation represents a danger to the integrity and legitimacy of the electoral process. From our research based on the 2021 Czech parliamentary elections, we introduce a model for measuring the resilience of citizens to disinformation. This model is then used to draw conclusions about the impact of disinformation on their voting behaviour. We argue that it is important to understand this impact in the context of pre-existing beliefs and opinions, and therefore in terms of disinformation reinforcing rather than changing existing views. In particular, we demonstrate how feeling disappointed with one political party can make people more inclined to endorse disinformation that targets it.