Information Warfare: Europe Catalogs Digital Assaults and Works on Counterattack

Our communication methods, especially through social media communities and messaging loops, provide fertile ground for disinformation campaigns.

The phenomenon is so massive that the European External Action Service (EEAS) – the body that manages EU diplomatic relations with non-member countries and leads the Union’s foreign and security policy – has just released the 4th edition of its annual report dedicated to informational interference operations against the 27.

To make sense of the nebulous social media accounts and the myriad interactions between them in an attempt to shape public debate (by highlighting certain topics or biases in news analysis), the EU diplomatic service has launched an online platform. It’s called Fimi-Explorer (Fimi stands for the English acronym denoting threats of manipulation and foreign interference) and allows internet users to navigate between publications on websites and social media. These platforms serve as channels and amplifiers for fake news, particularly related to international news and the desired perception of ongoing conflicts.

Context: The article discusses the prevalence of disinformation campaigns on social media and the efforts of the European Union to combat such operations.

Fact Check: The European External Action Service is responsible for managing EU diplomatic relations and foreign security policy.

France is highly exposed

An in-depth analysis at the international level reveals that after Ukraine, France is the second most targeted nation by foreign-origin disinformation campaigns (out of the ten countries analyzed). Targeting can change, particularly during ongoing election campaigns in democratic countries.

These arrays of social media accounts or websites, presented as professional media, simultaneously or successively flood different populations. Currently, Armenia, which votes in June 2026, is particularly exposed, according to European experts. As for us, the 2027 presidential elections are on the horizon.

These activities are mainly politically motivated but are largely operated by private actors who commercialize or exchange their services with state authorities looking to destabilize adversarial governments.

Educating the public opinion is part of the countermeasures

European countries’ responses primarily fall into three categories.

First, akin to the Fimi-Explorer platform, the European Union seeks to identify and document digital relays at the origin of these informational pollutions. This involves characterizing their practices to denounce them based on explicit elements. Training and raising public awareness about such practices are crucial to weaken such manipulative efforts.

Furthermore, it involves applying European law that holds hosts and major social media publishers accountable once it is established that contents are false and disseminated from robotic accounts.

Finally, direct actions are also possible. This is the strategy of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which manages the “French Response” account on the X network to denounce (often in an undiplomatic tone) the fake news ignoring our country.

Thus, a digital toolkit is mobilized to face the diversity of weapons in this constantly evolving information war.