Foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) describes a mostly non-illegal pattern of behaviour that threatens or has the potential to negatively affect values, procedures, and political processes. Such activity is manipulative in character and conducted in an intentional and coordinated manner. Actors of such activity can be state or non-state actors, including their proxies inside and outside of their own territory.

The EU has long recognised the importance of tackling FIMI and stepped up efforts to combat the issue long before the latest Russian aggression against Ukraine in February 2022. When in 2015, the concern first appeared on the EU’s political agenda, the European Council highlighted the need to challenge Russia's disinformation campaigns. Later, in 2018, following the Salisbury chemical attack in the UK and the related European Council conclusions, the EU focused its efforts on bolstering resilience against hybrid threats. Over the years, the EU has developed a more precise understanding and diagnosis of the issue, from fake news and disinformation to foreign information manipulation and interference, and it has improved the means of preventing, deterring, and responding to FIMI. Among the milestones in this journey are the Action Plan against Disinformation (2018) and the European Democracy Action Plan (2020). The war in Ukraine brought this work to the forefront of political attention. The European Strategic Compass (2022) and the Council Conclusions on FIMI (2022) provided further impetus. 

Along this journey, the EU has worked in close cooperation with like-minded partners such as the UK and other G7 countries. Collectively, we have achieved a detailed understanding of the tactics that actors use to manipulate and interfere, and we are improving our tools to raise the costs of such activities. Several high-profile fora provided a platform for developing our common reflection on the threat of foreign information manipulation and interference.

Addressing the Beyond disinformation conference in Brussels earlier this year, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the European Commission (HRVP) Josep Borrell underlined the importance of the fight against Putin’s “industry of lies” for the future of peace and democracy not only in the EU but worldwide. The event saw leading international experts debate how best to respond to the threat of information manipulation and foreign interference. The HRVP took the opportunity to present the Report on foreign information manipulation and interference threats, which exposes how Russia mobilised resources to systematically distort reality, shift blame and distract attention from its military invasion of Ukraine. The publication also documented a worrisome cooperation between actors like Russia and China.

Over three years, the EU Delegation to the United Kingdom has organised a number of events and workshops devoted to this threat. The focus of our forum last year was countering the Kremlin’s information manipulation in the context of the war in Ukraine (you can still catch up with session one and session two). It brought together leading experts in countering FIMI from the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), as well as practitioners from Ukraine. The speakers gave an overview of the Kremlin’s practices and had a thorough exchange of the lessons learnt from countering Moscow’s lies. The conference highlighted the importance of the EU’s Code of Practice on disinformation and the role and responsibilities of online platforms. It showcased the EU’s response to FIMI in the work of its East StratCom Task Force, created in 2015, and the EUvsDisinfo website and social media.

Building on this momentum, the EU Delegation to the UK will organise in October another high-profile international conference in London entitled Collective responses to tackling foreign information manipulation and interference.  Top experts in the field will discuss the respective EU and UK approaches, as well as common strategies that both sides have found effective. They will be joined by peers from the USA, Canada and Japan to explore avenues for cooperation among like-minder partners and areas of potential collective responses at a global level. The conference will also hear insights from the latest research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford regarding audiences’ exposure to foreign information manipulation. The conference will once again host practitioners from Ukraine who will share their experience in staying ahead of the enemy’s game.