The EU proposes measures against disinformation on the eve of the elections

2024-01-23 22:16:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The EU proposes measures against disinformation on the eve of the elections

Josep Borrell

The High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security of the European Union, Josep Borrell, presented the report of the External Action Service (EEAS) regarding foreign interference and disinformation campaigns, with the aim of influencing the electoral processes.

Borrell said on January 23 that this report comes at a sensitive and important time, as this year in many countries of the world, including in the EU and the United States, there will be election processes.

With this report, Borrell also proposed measures that should be taken to prevent negative impacts on democratic processes from factors that aim at manipulation and disinformation.

During the presentation of the report, the head of diplomacy of the EU said that the threat from foreign influences in the modern world are ever greater threats, which must be taken seriously.

"There are bombs that can kill, poisons that can poison them, but how to address manipulation and interference in the campaign is a big challenge," he said, adding that Russia has been sophisticated and industrial-scale for years. engaged in disinformation campaigns.

"We are sensitive to this threat because information and disinformation spread at the speed of light," he said. Borrell specifically mentioned the states of the Western Balkans as "victims" of such manipulative attacks.

The EU report on disinformation and manipulation campaigns comes on the eve of elections in several countries.

Close to 400 million European citizens will vote between June 6 and 9 in the European elections to elect new members of the European Parliament. The distribution of posts in key functions in EU institutions will also depend on this vote.

Russia and China are mentioned as the main actors who intentionally engage in interference and manipulation campaigns, which, according to the EU, intentionally misuse communication channels to spread misinformation.

Their goal is to influence the creation of divisions in society, damage democratic institutions or simply have economic goals, the European bloc said.

The report of the EU's special units dealing with this issue has identified 750 incidents only in the cases it has tracked over a one-year period, namely from November 2022 to December 2023.

The target of such interventions have been international organizations, certain states, but also individuals. Experts have found that 59 people were the main target of such verbal attacks, while the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, was the most targeted. After him, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, but also well-known artists such as Nicolas Cage and Margot Robbie, have also been targeted.

According to the report, about 30 percent of the attacks were directed against 140 different international organizations, from the EU and NATO to the United Nations.

The platforms that have been used the most for such actions have been Telegram and X, formerly known as Twitter. These platforms have been used for external interventions, but numerous other smaller platforms have also been used.

The EU has several times identified the Western Balkans region as an area where the efforts of foreign actors to intervene, especially in the election processes, have been focused.

In this report, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo are mentioned, where actions for interference in the election processes have been identified. According to the report, in the parliamentary elections that were held in Montenegro and in the local elections in Kosovo, there were attempts to influence these processes.

In Kosovo, local elections were held in April of last year in the four municipalities in the north inhabited by a majority of Serbs, which were boycotted by the local Serbs.

Of the designated countries, Ukraine has been the most frequent target of disinformation campaigns with 16 cases identified. Then the USA with 58 cases, followed by Poland, Germany, France and Serbia.

EU experts have stated that such efforts will not stop and that they may increase now on the eve of the elections in the European Parliament, but also of the presidential elections in the USA. Therefore, they have invited that even in the EU member states, but also at a common level, to act actively to prevent or fight such negative campaigns. Because these efforts, they said in the EU, endanger the democratic order and the values ??of the European bloc.

The EU report comes days after a senior US official warned that Washington believes Russia will carry out "information operations" aimed at turning opinion in Europe against Ukraine.

James Rubin, special envoy and coordinator at the US State Department's Global Engagement Center, told reporters on January 18 that US adversary Russia, as well as China, are working around the world to present propaganda their state as independent journalism, hiding the true source.

Rubin did not specifically name the countries he expressed concern about. However, he said that the main threats this year are in Europe, which at the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine in 2022 had united against the war and provided military and other assistance to Ukraine./ Rel