Dear readers, welcome to this week’s edition of our newsletter.
Week after week, we observe a growing mobilisation at the level of the European Union, and across the wider Council of Europe (CoE) region, as well as at the national level, to combat disinformation. This includes the launch of a new Council of Europe programme, which we will cover in this edition, providing direct funding to Member States to implement solutions in partnership with civil society. It also encompasses the structured dialogues being established between civil society organisations and national governments. The role of civil society within EU Member States is strengthening day by day, and it will remain a central focus of our attention.
Yet this reinforcement must be matched by equally substantial efforts at the European Union level. The EU budget must reflect this commitment, ensuring that all available resources to sustainably fund our democratic information ecosystem are fully mobilised.
This must translate into a robust budget allocation within the next multiannual European budget (MFF), including by leveraging of the fines collected under regulations such as the Digital Services Act. When companies infringed European regulation and therefore damaged the information environment, the equivalent amount of the fines paid should be redirected to civil society organisations whose mission is to defend our democratic ideals and institutions. It is they who produce the expert analysis needed to hold both platforms and institutions accountable, and to remain independent when doing so. Without such a mechanism, oversight will be emaciated, and with it the accountability that is needed to drive compliance among both platforms and institutions.
We will continue to monitor these developments closely in the coming months, and look forward to the conclusions of the political negotiations onAgoraEU (a key programme for civil society under the MFF), expected by the end of this year or early.
We will also address these questions at our annual conference, #Disinfo2026 — tickets are now available, and we will be announcing the first programme elements very shortly.
Wishing all our readers an excellent read.
National responses, civil society and resilience
Efforts to counter informational threats continue to accelerate worldwide, including European and international national responses and bottom-up civil society mobilization.
Spain’s Department of National Security published the results of the Forum Against Disinformation Campaigns 2025, an annual initiative that brings together government and civil society representatives to analyse disinformation challenges and propose joint assessments and solutions.
On the civil society front, a group of 302 Spanish citizens, supported by Victifin, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting victims of financial scams, filed the first collective criminal action in the country against Meta, accusing the company of allowing the dissemination of more than 40,000 fraudulent advertisements on Facebook and Instagram during 2024 and 2025. In France, the NGO QuotaClimat and independent media Les Surligneurs launched the new Droit à l’info platform, serving as an early-detection node to swiftly flag emerging election and climate manipulation. Concurrently, Romanian civic actors deployed the România Imună (Immune Romania) framework, using data monitoring and psychological “prebunking” to insulate public and corporate sectors from hostile campaigns.
Meanwhile, outside of the EU, strategic legal pushback is accelerating in the UK, where a high-profile High Court test case has been launched against Elon Musk’s xAI over demeaning, non-consensual synthetic media generated by Grok, seeking to establish developer liability for platform design choices. This sovereign legal hardening is mirrored internationally: Mexico’s Congress approved a constitutional amendment allowing for the total annulment of elections if foreign digital manipulation is proven, while Brazil presented a pioneering six-pillar model ahead of the UN climate negotiations to structurally shield climate science from targeted disinformation.
- Spain publishes Forum Against Disinformation Campaigns – 2025 Initiatives: Experts’ Recommendations and Conclusions, including expert frameworks and tactical guides on disinformation (Departamento Seguridad Nacional, DSN)
- Meta faces a historic €36m collective criminal complaint in Spain over fraudulent ads (Laboratorio de Periodismo)
- Anti-disinformation project, “Droit à l’info”, launched to safeguard French democratic debate (Boursorama)
- Romania launches “România Imună” civil framework at Rapid Response Information Summit.
- Brazil presents a pioneering model for combating climate disinformation (COP30 Brasil, Amazonia)
- Mexican Congress approves amendment allowing election annulment over foreign interference (Reuters)
- UK Labour MP launches landmark legal action against xAI over non-consensual Grok content
- EU DisinfoLab webinars: Evidence & Enforcement under the Digital Service Act (DSA)
- Watch the recording: Enforcing the DSA enforcers: How Member States can legally push the Commission to act.
- Upcoming (25 June): The DSA in court: What Democracy Reporting International learnt from suing X.
Spotlight: The Council of Europe rolls out a new anti-disinformation tool: RESIST
To help member states systematically map and counter structural informational threats, the Council of Europe (CoE) has started a pilot phase of its evidence-based RESIST methodology. Rather than acting as a content moderation tool, RESIST serves as a national diagnostic audit operating across three distinct, interconnected tiers:
- Tier 1 (Statistical Context): Establishes hard demographic and baseline digital indicators within the participating country.
- Tier 2 (Institutional Benchmarking): A rigorous self-assessment evaluating state policies and implementation bottlenecks across five critical societal pillars: Media, Media Literacy, Education, Culture, and Youth Participation.
- Tier 3 (Perceived Implementation): Field-tests these frameworks to measure how policy intentions translate into real-world resilience on the ground.
Following the initial pilot phase, the Council of Europe will use this empirical database to pair countries for peer-to-peer exchanges, allowing nations to collaboratively close implementation gaps and build a unified, data-driven European defence network.
EU POLICY AND REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS
The EU has continued to reinforce and defend its digital regulatory framework through new implementation measures, international cooperation, and judicial backing.
The European Commission published draft guidelines clarifying the trusted flagger mechanism, a key Digital Services Act (DSA) tool designed to improve the identification and prioritisation of illegal content online, launching also an open targeted consultation on the matter that runs until 26 June. Meanwhile, the Commission welcomed the G7’s adoption of common principles for protecting minors online, many of which mirror existing EU approaches to platform accountability, risk mitigation, and robust age assurance. Meanwhile, the EU General Court has upheld the designation of Meta’s Messenger as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which places obligations on tech companies with significant influence”, as the article says.
- EU advances DSA trusted flagger framework with new draft guidelines (European Commission)
- Targeted consultation: draft guidelines on trusted flaggers under the Digital Services Act (DSA)
- The Commission welcomes G7 agreement on common principles for protecting minors online (European Commission)
- EU court upholds Commission decision designating Messenger as a gatekeeper (Reuters)
RESEARCH AND PLATFORM GOVERNANCE
Platform accountability remains vital as new research exposes.
A peer-reviewed study reveals how algorithmic curation shapes what millions see based on partisan alignment and journalistic quality, while an independent algorithm audit flags systemic vulnerabilities and calls for alternative content moderation models. As a positive step forward, Meta has committed an additional $13 million to its independent Oversight Board, securing the watchdog’s operations through 2028 to reinforce external check mechanisms.
- Algorithm audit highlights urgent need for alternative content moderation models (EDMO)
- How partisan alignment, journalistic quality, and algorithmic governance shape what millions see on Facebook (Giglietto, F., & Marino, G.)
- Meta commits $13 million in additional funding for the oversight board until 2028 (Reuters)
AI DISINFO WATCH
As concerns grow over AI’s expanding influence on information ecosystems and content moderation, recent regulatory developments have been accompanied by calls and initiatives for human-centered digital governance.
The European Commission’s AI Office convened a new round of working group meetings to advance the forthcoming Code of Practice on the Marking and Labelling of AI-Generated Content, which will establish technical benchmarks for identifying synthetic media under the EU AI Act. Meanwhile, the Spanish government approved a draft bill aimed at regulating the deployment of high-risk AI systems. These regulatory efforts coincide with the publication of new reports highlighting AI’s growing influence on information ecosystems, the quality and diversity of online content, and content moderation practices. The AI-driven transformation led by major technology companies is also facing increasing resistance, as shown by Pope Leo XIV’s landmark encyclical, which calls for a more human-centered approach to technological development and stronger regulatory safeguards, as well as by the launch of the AI Resist List by author Karen Hao, an initiative designed to map and amplify community-led resistance to unregulated technological expansion.
- European Commission advances AI transparency code under EU AI Act (Digital Watch Observatory)
- Spain to fine AI abusers up to €35m under strict new laws (Sur in English)
- 8 AI bots now write 50% of X’s Community Notes (Indicator)
- The impact of AI-Generated text on the Internet (Dolezal, J., Alam, S., Graham, M., & Bohacek, M.)
- Pope Leo’s ‘Magnifica humanitas’: AI must serve humanity not concentrate power (Vatican News)
- Grassroots directory: The AI Resist list mapping project.
Explore more in our recently updated AI Disinfo Hub, where we gather the latest research, tools, and analysis on AI-driven disinformation.
GEOPOLITICAL INFORMATION WARFARE AND ELECTORAL RESILIENCE
Foreign interference and information warfare continue to pose significant challenges to democratic resilience and electoral integrity.
Several investigations highlight how Russian state-linked influence operations have intensified. These range from campaigns targeting Armenia’s pro-Western government to operations designed to weaken mainstream political forces in Germany and bolster support for the far-right AfD. Crucially, these Kremlin-backed operations have evolved beyond digital platforms, using corporate shell games to rebrand sanctioned state news agencies in foreign hubs and embedding a former RT state media executive directly into a mainstream European broadcast network to bypass Western bans. However, direct threats to domestic communities and election integrity do not originate solely from Russia; they are increasingly driven by Western political and corporate actors. This is evidenced by Microsoft facing accusations of leaking the names of Dutch DSA regulators to the US Congress, while US officials actively coordinate a transatlantic push with the European far-right to systematically weaken digital enforcement mechanisms under the guise of fighting “censorship”.
- Inside Russia’s $50M campaign and the Turkish media “narrative laundering” machinery targeting Armenia’s election (Reuters and NewsGuard)
- Kremlin disinformation machinery targets Chancellor Merz’s CDU to boost far-right AfD (Politico)
- From Berlin to Abu Dhabi: The secret rebranding of a Russian state media agency (OSINT for Ukraine)
- Former RT France director embedded as geopolitical voice inside the mainstream French media empire (Liberation)
- Microsoft is accused of sharing names of Dutch DSA regulators with the US Congress (NL Times)
- US officials and European far right Coordinate Push Against DSA “Censorship (Tech Policy)
CONFLICTS AND CRISES
Our newly updated tracking repository, Conflict & Crisis Hub, highlights how major event periods continue to expose large vulnerabilities across digital platforms, public health, and international security.
Historically rooted state-level information control continues to cast long shadows over modern emergencies. In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, viral bioweapon conspiracies are severely hampering Ebola containment efforts, a pattern traced directly back to Soviet-era health disinformation tactics. This structural manipulation also echoes historical precedents revealed by declassified Stasi files on the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, demonstrating how systemic Soviet cover-ups of nuclear contamination permanently shattered long-term public trust. Shifting to current structural vulnerabilities, commercial platforms are failing to mitigate public threats; a new investigation reveals that major tech giants are actively profiting from ads for medications officially banned in Spain, directly violating the DSA. Meanwhile, this informational instability extends into geopolitics, where research for the NATO Association of Canada warns that rapid AI deepfakes are out-pacing government verification, heavily increasing the risk of “friendly fire confusion” and critical operational miscalculations among international allies during military flashpoints.
- Anger and suspicion as Ebola spreads through eastern DR Congo (Financial Times)
- The Playbook of Health Disinformation and the Ebola Outbreak in the DRC and Uganda (Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung)
- Chernobyl at 40: Secret Stasi files reveal extent of Soviet misinformation campaign over nuclear disaster (The Conversation)
- 45% of Medicines Banned in Spain Still Run Ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google and TikTok (Maldita)
- How AI-generated misinformation creates confusion among NATO allies (NATO Canada)
Explore more in our recently updated Conflict & Crisis Hub.
Brussels corner
veraAI – the future of EU verification tools? On 11 March, MEP Ana Catarina Mendes (S&D, Spain) tabled a parliamentary question to the European Commission about whether it plans to keep supporting free, European-made verification tools, to ensure they are available for journalists and fact-checkers after the veraAI project ended in October 2025. The question is timely, as it was tabled, amid growing concerns about underfunded verification infrastructure, as AI-enabled FIMI accelerates. In response, the Commission pointed to initiatives including AI-CODE, EDMO, Creative Europe, a future European Democracy Shield research call and €34 million invested through Horizon Europe, but did not announce any dedicated follow-up funding for open-access verification tools.
Fostering a democratic news ecosystem. Emma Rafowicz (S&D, France) Alice Kuhnke (Greens/EFA, Sweden), the joint rapporteurs (parliamentary draftspersons) for the upcoming European Parliament’s scrutiny of the seven-year funding programme called “AgoraEU” have published their initial draft Report. One innovative and insightful suggestion that they make is to broaden the scope of the European Commission’s proposed “News” strand, in order to ensure that all relevant entities can be funded. They rename the strand “Democratic News Ecosystem”, and broaden the range of activities that can be funded with the aim, in their words, of “contributing to ensure greater democratic resilience across the Union.” This seems to be a pragmatic approach, echoing our established policy positions, which, if approved by the Parliament as a whole, will help us to better address the full range of threats faced by our democracies.
Technological Sovereignty Package. On 3 June, the European Commission proposed the Technological Sovereignty Package, as a response to Europe’s reliance on non-EU providers for over 80% of its digital goods. Weakness in European digital sovereignty are often seen as a structural problem that hinders the fight against disinformation. The initiative comprises four policy instruments:
- the Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Development Act (CADA) legislative proposal, which aims to triple data centre capacity by 2030 and it proposes 4 sovereignty assurance levels, aimed at assessing the sovereignty risk of the public administration cloud services;
- the Chips Act 2.0, which will focus on creating a European demand for European chips;
- the Open Source Strategy, which promotes public procurement of open-source software rather than proprietary tools; and
- the Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI for Energy, which looks at how AI can support the digital autonomy of European energy systems, promoting AI grid optimisation, energy efficiency, balancing supply and demand in real time and favouring data sharing between energy operators.
Explore the full Brussels Corner on our website.
🧡 One thing we loved
A massive congratulations to Alexios Mantzarlis and Craig Silverman, the founders of Indicator, for taking home the global trophy for Best in Countering Disinformation!
The award was announced at the 77th World News Media Congress in Marseille, where the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) unveiled the global winners of the prestigious Digital Media Awards 2026. Selected from over 800 entries worldwide, this year’s cohort showcases a news industry in confident motion, mastering responsible AI integration, deepening reader relationships, and accelerating the collective fight against information manipulation. Seeing Indicator recognised as the global benchmark for disinformation defence is a truly proud milestone for the entire community.
📚 Recommended pick
Raquel Miguel, Senior Researcher at EU DisinfoLab:
For a while, I tried to understand and explain the dramatic shift AI is bringing the way we access information, a shift that has intensified since search engines like Google gave AI a more powerful role in search, including the use of AI agents, as announced on 19 May.
The best metaphor I’ve found comes from this blogpost titled So you still think you can Google?, by Dutch professor Henk Van Ess, author of the Digital Digging blog, which I strongly recommend reading:
“Imagine a theatre where the actors keep performing in an empty house. One spectator is left in the front row: a robot, taking notes, who will later tell the outside world what the play was about. So the actors start performing for the robot – shorter, louder, every nuance cut, because the robot doesn’t care for nuance. That’s what’s happening to the web. Sites no longer write for the person in the seats; they write for the machine in the front row. And the person only ever hears the robot’s summary.”
We already know that any technology that mediates access to content has an impact on that content. This was already the case with traditional search engines, where the robot selected the order in which websites appeared. The same could be said of other, even analogue, repositories of information. But with AI, the problem deepens: the robot no longer only selects the content; it also summarizes it. And, as far as we know, it does so according to rules shaped more by language patterns than by the substance of the content itself.
The problem of mediation is obvious for any ordinary user, but it is even more serious for researchers. But in his brilliant piece, Van Ess offers practical advice on how to regain control: adding &udm=14 to the end of a Google results URL takes you back to the older version of search, without AI Overviews and similar features. Ending a query with -ai can work too, though only sometimes. And in the age of AI search, Google operators matter more than ever, as Van Ess puts it, to “turn Google back into an index you steer instead of an oracle you trust.”
🧰 Tools & learning
In response to the US Take It Down Act, which requires platforms to remove synthetic non-consensual intimate imagery within 48 hours, Indicator has published a practical overview mapping how to report on 16 major platforms. It is a useful tool for anyone seeking to understand how to request a takedown or assess platform compliance. That said, researchers have flagged potential drawbacks, including the risk of the law being weaponised to remove consensual content or political speech.
PolitiFact is a valuable tool for quickly identifying misleading and false information and strengthening understanding of political and media claims in a fast-moving information environment. It is an American fact-checking platform that covers a wide range of topics, including Iran, Donald Trump, affordability, and broader trends. It uses a clear “Truth-O-Meter” system to rate public statements, from “True” to “Pants on Fire,” helping readers quickly assess how accurate a claim is.
💬 EU DisinfoLab webinars
- 18 June. From Botnets to AI Swarms: Coordinated AI Disinformation and the Case for an AI. Influence Observatory
- 25 June. The DSA in Court: What Democracy Reporting International Learnt from Suing X.
Missed a session? Watch our past webinars.
🗓️ Events on our radar
- 15–18 June. Disinformation Summer Institute 2026 (California, in-person)
- 17 June. Webinar: Barriers to Data Access and Threats to Tech Researchers (online)
- 17–19 June. GlobalFact 2026. International Fact-Checking Network (Vilnius, in-person)
- 17–19 June. Democracy Hackathon (Strasbourg, in-person)
- 18–20 June. Fake News Festival 2026 (Frankfurt, in-person)
- 23 June. Fight for Us, Not for Them: a public interest vision for EU tech policy event. EDRi (online)
- 25 June. JRC DISINFO Workshop: Registrations are opened! (Brussels & online)
- 25 June. Level Up Forum: “Towards Inclusive Media Literacy: Protecting and Empowering Older Europeans” (Brussels & online)
- 29 June. EDMO BELUX Lunch Lecture: Is the Internet compatible with democracy? (online)
- 1–5 July. Educational programme hosted by the New Eurasian Strategies Centre – Russia in Focus: Policy research intensive (Berlin, in-person)
- 2 July. Digital futures: Centre for Digital Trust and Society Forum 2026 (Manchester, in-person)
- 7–8 September. Countering Disinformation, Raising Democratic Resilience. EDMO BELUX 2.0 (Brussels, in-person)
- 15–18 September. Psychological Approaches to Misinformation in Minds and Society. CIMCYC International Doctoral Summer School (Granada, in-person)
- 6–8 October. #Disinfo2026. EU DisinfoLab (Vilnius, in-person)
- 14–16 October. GCJT & iMEdD’s Ideas Zone European Journalist Retreat on Trauma, Resilience and Ethical Reporting (Laconia, in-person)
🤝 Jobs & opportunities
- ActiveFence. Multiple positions
- NewsGuard. Staff Reporter
- Moonshot. Multiple positions
- CDT. Academic Year Externship
- Discord. Public Policy Advisor
- CCDH. Multiple positions
- Ofcom. Non-Executive Director
- ISD. Foundation Partnerships Manager
- Europol. Internship
- Open call: Matadero. Project proposals for the Collaborative Prototyping Lab
Have something to share – an event, job opening, publication? Send your suggestions via the “get in touch” form below, and we’ll consider them for the next edition of Disinfo Update.