Disinformation by hostile states a 'threat to democracies'

Launching their third report on FIMI, the EU’s diplomatic chief Kaja Kallas, said this activity was “one of the biggest international threats” to democratic societies.

“A threat that cuts into the heart of democracy, falsehood presented as facts, we have data being manipulated, we have outright lies being told,” she said.

She said that official Russian and Chinese channels are only the “tip of the iceberg”, boosted by “an extensive covert network” of state-linked channels hidden from the public’s eye.

The report identified 90 countries that were affected in their survey, conducted between November 2023 and November 2024.

It said that Ukraine remains the main victim of FIMI attacks, accounting for almost half of the incidents, followed by France, Germany, and Moldova.

“Elections were a key target of FIMI attacks, with 42 Russian FIMI attempts recorded during the June European elections,” the report said.

It said that social media remained the “hotbed” of FIMI activity, with X, owned by Elon Musk, alone accounting for 88% of the detected activity.

The report said the 505 incidents of FIMI that they detected and analysed was a sample and that those incidents involved 38,000 unique channels, across 25 platforms and a total of 68,000 pieces of content.

It found that 322 organisations were targeted, including the EU and Nato, the armed forces of certain Western countries and independent media, such as Le Parisien, BBC, France 24, Der Spiegel and La Stampa.

The EEAS documented 41 cases where artificial intelligence was used.

“Last year alone, more than 90 countries and over 300 organisations were targets of attacks,” Ms Kallas said.

“From the Paris Olympic and Paralympic games, to the presidential elections in Romania and Moldova. 

"We saw everything from disinformation about farmers’ protests in Germany, to biased material trying to legitimise Russia’s influence in the Middle East.” 

Ms Kallas, who is EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said FIMI was a major global threat.

She said some critics dismiss FIMI as just “a communications issue”, but it was actually “a tactic of war”.

She added: “Sometimes it doesn’t come directly from the mouth of the Russian ambassador. It comes from where you least expect it.

“For example, the Kremlin-operated Doppelgänger campaign imitated the websites of Le Monde, Die Welt, The Guardian, and other renowned outlets.” 

Ms Kallas said the information space is “nothing less than a geopolitical battleground where we are currently losing the war”.

She said: “Russia has invested over a billion euros in their state-controlled propaganda outlets in the last few years. 

"It is increasing [this] year on year."