{"id":421884,"date":"2025-03-19T17:39:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T16:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/19\/rapporto-seae-operazioni-fimi-kallas\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T17:57:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T16:57:53","slug":"the-galaxy-of-foreign-interference-operations-in-brussels-crosshairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/19\/the-galaxy-of-foreign-interference-operations-in-brussels-crosshairs\/","title":{"rendered":"The galaxy of foreign interference operations in Brussels’ crosshairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The EU takes an extra step to defend itself against foreign interference<\/strong>. With its third annual report on threats of manipulation and disinformation<\/strong> from external actors, the External Action Service<\/strong> draws (literally) a map of the networks of malign operations set up by Russia and China<\/strong>, shedding light on the still-dark galaxy of dangers to European democracies.<\/p>\n

It is hardly news that hybrid threats of all kinds are looming over the Union. The interference and information manipulation<\/strong> operations put in place by foreign actors (FIMI<\/strong>) are ending up more and more in the spotlight,<\/a> especially in these times of increasingly head-on confrontation with Vladimir Putin<\/strong>‘s Russia, which uses cheap but effective methods to destabilise opponents.<\/p>\n

The third annual report<\/a> on the subject by the European External Action Service (EEAS)<\/strong>, published today (March 19), sheds some light on the functioning of FIMI operations in the Old Continent. The EEAS has created an “exposure matrix<\/strong>,” an analytical tool to counter attempts at interference and manipulation perpetrated in the Union’s information space and unveil its “complex, multilevel digital architecture<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Investigating the interaction between online media networks (covert and otherwise) and the channels favoured by malicious actors, the matrix <\/span>has revealed<\/a> the <\/span>vast infrastructure used by Moscow and Beijing for their FIMI<\/strong> activities, in which <\/span>official channels<\/strong> and <\/span>state-owned media<\/strong> are only the tip of the iceberg.<\/span> In fact, these interact with a vast network of channels linked or affiliated with state actors in less obvious ways<\/strong>, making their operations more devious and their detection more difficult. Russian and Chinese operations such as Doppelganger<\/em><\/strong>, False Fa\u00e7ade<\/em><\/strong>, Paperwall <\/em><\/strong>or Portal Kombat<\/em><\/strong>, the report argues, are different from each other but sometimes interact to undermine Western democracies.<\/p>\n

\"Seae<\/a>
The map of SEEA on FIMI operations (photo: European Union)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The report examined 505 “FIMI incidents” that occurred in 2024<\/strong> on some 38,000 channels in some 90 countries around the world, involving 322 organisations. About half of the attacks targeted Ukraine<\/strong>, but other targets included France<\/strong>, Germany<\/strong>, Moldova<\/strong>, and several states in Sub-Saharan Africa<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Among the main targets of operations have been election processes<\/strong> (e.g., 42 attempts recorded during last June’s European elections alone). Social platforms<\/strong> are the preferred venue for launching these campaigns (alone, <\/span>X hosted 88 per cent of them<\/strong>), while “the main tactics, techniques, and procedures included <\/span>botnets and coordinated inauthentic behaviour<\/strong>, as well as impersonation and the creation of <\/span>inauthentic news websites<\/strong>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking at a conference<\/a><\/span> on the subject<\/a>, High Representative Kaja Kallas<\/strong> emphasised that “if disinformation is a bullet that strikes democracy<\/strong> to the heart, FIMI operations are the gun and the whole arsenal” in the hands of actors who want to undermine<\/strong> the foundations of European societies<\/strong> by poisoning public debate and impeding citizens “to trust what they see or hear”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

FIMI operations, she cautioned, are “not a communications problem” but a strategic threat in their own right. “Our information space<\/strong> is nothing less than a geopolitical battleground<\/strong>,” she said, “and right now we are losing the war<\/strong>.” She reiterated that the EU invests in this dimension of its security infinitely less than Russia and China, but there are some positive signs.<\/p>\n

\"Kaja<\/a>
High Representative Kaja Kallas speaks at the EEAS conference to present the third annual report on FIMI operations, March 19, 2025 (photo: Xavier Lejeune\/European Union)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The twelve-star diplomacy chief listed some actions the EU is already taking to counter the malign operations of foreign actors: exposing the networks used<\/strong> to conduct FIMI campaigns, as this increases costs for those running them; increasing awareness<\/strong> at the public level (e.g., through online databases such as the EUvsDisinfo website<\/i><\/a>) as well as the capacities of state and community structures to detect threats and deal with them<\/strong>; and sanctioning culpable actors<\/strong> when they can be identified.<\/p>\n

Finally, the EEAS report concludes that the “tireless work of civil society organisations<\/strong>, independent journalists<\/strong> and fact-checkers<\/strong> to uphold the integrity of information<\/strong> and protect fundamental freedoms in an increasingly challenging geopolitical environment also remains essential to the resilience of democratic communities.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The two previous reports had focused on establishing the methodological framework<\/strong> to standardise the approach to investigations of FIMI activities and <\/span>the collective countering and responding mechanisms<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its third annual report on foreign interference operations, the European External Action Service produced a mapping of malicious campaigns carried out by external actors (mainly Russia and China) against democratic societies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":421875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649],"tags":[26327,25916,30770,27441,29275,26995,25803,27919],"class_list":["post-421884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-categorizzato","tag-cina-en","tag-operations-fimi-en","tag-interference-strange-and","tag-hybrid-war-en","tag-disinformation-en","tag-russia-in-2","tag-seae-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421884"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421889,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421884\/revisions\/421889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}