By Alexandra Brzozowski | Euractiv Est. 4min 24-01-2024 Content-Type: News News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. [Shutterstock/Martial Red] Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>> Languages: Français | DeutschPrint Email Facebook X LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Elections across the globe this year will be a “prime target” for countries looking to spread disinformation and undermine democracy, such as Russia, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell warned on Tuesday (23 January). “One of the most significant threats of our time is not about a bomb that can kill you, it’s about a poison that can colonise your mind and how to address it,” Borrell said in a keynote speech, presenting the publication of the EU’s second annual disinformation report. “2024 is a critical year to fight” foreign information manipulation and interference, Borrell said, warning that “elections will become the prime target for malign foreign actors. “Security is no longer a matter of weaponry, of army, it is a matter of information, how people get ideas and facts that will later determine how citizens will choose their governments,” Borrell said. “Keep in mind that unchecked malicious content spreads like cancer and puts the health of the democracy at risk, but we have the tools to effectively fight against this disease. We have the capacity, we need more.” The World Economic Forum, held in Davos earlier in January, ranked disinformation and propaganda – called “foreign information manipulations and interference” (FIMI) in the report – as “the second biggest risk the world is going to face this year”. Russia links The EU report examined more than 750 disinformation attacks between December 2022 and November last year, involving the strategic spread of false stories and harassment of legitimate sources to reduce trust in public institutions and sow hatred against nations and groups of people. In the 750 attacks investigated, 4,000 channels (websites and social media platforms) had been used, with election attacks prepared months in advance. Researchers from the EU’s diplomatic service, EEAS, found that Ukraine was the most frequently attacked, but 149 entities including media organisations such as Euronews, Reuters, Deutsche Welle, and the New York Times and LGBTQ+ organisations were also targeted. Media and civil society groups were targeted by “bullying, harassment or threats”, the report said. “The goal is not only to shape the global narratives, but also to suppress and silence dissenting voices,” it added. Launching the report, Borrell cited an incident in France after Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, when more than 200 Stars of David were found painted on a series of buildings in Paris. Borrell said tensions in the wake of the incident had been amplified by more than 1,000 Russian bots that made 2,500 posts on social media attempting to sow division. “The Russian perpetrators identified a faultline in European society and exploited it,” Borrell said. Spanish example With a record number of around 83 elections around the world this year, the report homed in on two 2023 general elections, in Spain and Poland, to illustrate the tactics used by Russia and others. A series of Kremlin-backed Telegram channels were put to use in the dissemination of fake news across Spain in a “swarming action” to undermine the credibility of the election with false information. This came from accounts that had been given legitimacy on a Telegram promotion months earlier. The false information was also suggesting that Spanish voters might not be safe, by spreading warnings of a possible attack by the former terrorist group Eta on election day, which was published on a cloned version of the Community of Madrid website. Links were traced to private Russian Telegram users residing in Spain, the researchers said. [Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic] Read more with Euractiv 'Doomsday Clock': 90 seconds until the end of the worldAtomic scientists on Tuesday (23 January) kept their ‘Doomsday Clock’ set as close to midnight as ever before, citing Russia's actions on nuclear weapons amid its invasion of Ukraine, nuclear-armed Israel’s Gaza war and worsening climate change as factors driving the risk of global catastrophe.
