The European Parliament is reporting that its Special Committee on Foreign Interference says there is a “general lack of awareness of the severity of foreign interference and information manipulation, overwhelmingly carried out by Russia and China,” which is “exacerbated by loopholes in legislation and insufficient coordination between EU countries.” According to a European Parliament: press release:
March 9, 2022 Parliament’s inquiry into mapping how malicious foreign powers manipulate information and interfere in the EU to undermine democratic processes concluded that malicious actors can, without fear of consequences, influence elections, carry out cyber-attacks, recruit former senior politicians and advance polarisation in public debate. The report by the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation (INGE) says that a general lack of awareness of the severity of foreign interference and information manipulation, overwhelmingly carried out by Russia and China, is exacerbated by loopholes in legislation and insufficient coordination between EU countries. In the ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine, the Russian government has demonstrated that “even information can be weaponised” as Russia spreads “disinformation of an unparalleled malice and magnitude” to deceive its citizens and the international community about the war.. Parliament welcomes the recently-introduced EU-wide ban on Russian propaganda outlets such as Sputnik TV and RT.
Read the rest here.
The Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation (INGE), was set up in June 2020. After roughly 50 hearings with around 130 experts, the committee’s one-and-a-half-year mandate lapses at the end of March. In January, the Global Influence Operations Report (GIOR) reported that the Committee had concluded its 18-months inquiry and recommended building a sanctions regime against disinformation. An earlier draft report by INGE from November had accused Russia and China of being “particularly active in the field of elite capture and co-optation” and identified several former high-ranking European politicians as Russian and Chinese influence agents.
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