In a review due to be published on Friday and seen by Reuters, the EU assesses efforts to safeguard the May vote for the EU’s legislature by funding fact-checking organizations, building up an in-house unit to counter disinformation from Russia, and enlisting the help of Facebook, Google, Twitter and others.
“RUSSIANS SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL”
It cites what it called evidence of a “continued and sustained” effort by Russian elements to promote extreme views and polarize local debate through disinformation spread online.
EU governments and NATO allies say Russia is targeting elections to undermine Western democracy. Moscow denies that.
In the recent EU elections, the world’s second largest, domestic political actors mimicked these tactics to undermine the bloc’s democratic institutions, the report by the bloc’s executive and its foreign service said.
However, it added, there was no proof of “a distinct cross-border disinformation campaign from external sources specifically targeting the European elections”.