Disinformation as a Threat to the EU National Security: Issues and Approaches

Abstract

This research constitutes a relatively new area that has emerged from dealing with the spread of online disinformation and misinformation to ensure the protection of European values and democracy. The spread of both disinformation and misinformation may have a variety of consequences, such as threatening EU security and environment at risk. The author attempts to delve into approaches to identifying and understanding of the complex problem of as a multifaceted and intricate issue. Recent theoretical developments have revealed that purposeful disinformation poses a threat of undermining both the European countries’ information security and basic norms and democratic values, on which the institutional legitimacy and political stability of the European Union depend. A challenging problem, which arises in this domain, is the necessity to provide an objective and evidence-based understanding of the content, scale, scope, nature of the existing issue as well as to develop possible strategy to tackle it, taking into account that the problem of disinformation is deeply intertwined with the digital ecosystem and constantly innovated technologies. It should be articulated that disinformation campaigns are intensified by new technologies, such as social media. Social media is an effective way of spreading disinformation on a rapid and global basis, which in recent years has been actively used by public actors to influence both their own citizens and the global audience. Social media once proclaimed as a force for freedom and democracy, is now at the centre of research for its role in increasing disinformation, inciting violence, and declining trust in the media and democratic institutions. The researcher emphasizes that the problem that makes it difficult to study the phenomenon of ‘disinformation’ is the presence of numerical terminology that denotes false information, including fakes, misinformation, propaganda, information manipulation, information disorder, hybrid warfare. The inconsistency of definitions indicates a lack of consensus among key stakeholders on the scope of understanding the issue. Clarity of goals and terminology are required to develop strategies and mechanisms to counter misinformation.