Written by Naja Bentzen
The role of information integrity in the proposed European democracy shield, announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, was the subject of a roundtable discussion organised by EPRS on 10 December 2024. The notion of information integrity has been gaining ground in multilateral and international forums in recent years. The panel connected multilateral and European diplomatic perspectives on how to make our information ecosystems healthy, while protecting fundamental rights. Etienne Bassot, Director of the Members’ Research Service, opened the event, which was moderated by Michael Adam, Head of the Digital Policies Unit.
In her keynote speech, First Vice-President of the European Parliament, Sabine Verheyen (EPP, Germany), built on the EPRS motto, ‘Empowering through knowledge’. She underscored the importance of empowering citizens to navigate the digital landscape and resist the flood of manipulative content. She emphasised the need to build and maintain a resilient and trustworthy information sphere, in line with the announced European democracy shield. This includes strict enforcement of the EU’s digital regulation, notably the Digital Services Act (DSA), and the work of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) and its regional hubs. It also includes the Artificial Intelligence Act, alongside the European Media Freedom Act and the regulation on political advertising.
Arvin Gadgil, Director of the Global Policy Centre for Governance, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), underlined that no aspect of information integrity can be limited by borders – and neither can the solutions. With UNDP the biggest development programme in the UN system ( present in 170 countries), he noted information integrity will become an increasing programming area for the UNDP. In the future, more countries will likely ask for UNDP assistance to build information integrity. The EU supports much of this assistance. He also underlined the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement, which requires long-term collaboration with trusted partners to find solutions, for example via the Global Action Coalition on Information Integrity (supported by Denmark’s Tech4Democracy Initiative).
Charles Baubion, Head of the Information Integrity Team, Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), cautioned never to take democracy for granted: upholding the values of democracy requires constant attention and continuous reflection, leveraging democracy’s ability to self-improve. Earlier this year, the OECD report ‘Facts not fakes: Tackling disinformation, strengthening information integrity‘ emphasised the urgency of boosting ‘the integrity of information spaces and combating disinformation’ to reinforce democracy and strengthen the fabric of open societies. In November 2024, the OECD invited stakeholders to comment on draft recommendations on information integrity, aiming to promote information integrity in line with the universal human rights of freedom of opinion and expression. Similar to the UN and EU approaches, all stakeholders and all levels of society are factored in. Charles Baubion emphasised that social media company self-regulation is not enough, more transparency and accountability is needed, not least with the added challenge of handling the role of AI. The Digital Services Act is a good example of EU leadership in this area.
Filip Grzegorzewski, Head of Information Integrity Division, European External Action Service (EEAS) started by defining foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), a pattern of behaviour that threatens or has the potential to negatively impact our values, procedures and political processes. The EEAS focuses on behaviour rather than on narratives. Triggered by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, the EU has built a comprehensive toolbox to address the challenges. The work includes cooperating with all 27 Member States to reinforce internal defence against FIMI. Moreover, the EEAS expands these efforts across the world through its external network of 145 delegations and 24 common security and defence policy (CSDP) missions and operations. The EEAS also helps build resilience against FIMI in regions closest to home, via four task forces for the immediate neighbourhood: East, South, Western Balkans and Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, the EEAS helps tackle FIMI globally, including via cooperation within the G7’s Rapid Reaction Mechanism.
Seemab Sheikh, Acting Deputy Tech Ambassador, Denmark, explained that the Danish tech ambassador (the first such post in the world) moved from San Francisco to Copenhagen last year, to expand the focus beyond the US, including Europe and the Global South. In addition to the work on the UN Global Digital Compact, Denmark, alongside the Netherlands and Wikimedia, is leading a multi-stakeholder task force for the Freedom Online Coalition, working towards a blueprint for a holistic and positive online information ecosystem. She noted, in the face of the erosion of information integrity, which AI is accelerating, tech companies need to take greater social responsibility. Information integrity will be a high priority during Denmark’s presidency in the second half of 2025, prioritising cooperation with private companies and with a special focus on AI, as well as enhancing resilience against hybrid threats. Seemab Sheikh noted the potential of the announced European democracy shield initiative to further strengthen and coordinate the EU’s response to FIMI.
Naja Bentzen highlighted the increasing influence of ‘corporate diplomacy’ on our information ecosystems, or our collective cognitive infrastructure. In some respects, the very large online platforms and search engines, with more than 45 million users in the EU, wield more geopolitical and geostrategic influence than most nation states. In the next years, underlying tension between what Anu Bradford sees as three different models for tech regulation (the EU’s rights-driven model; the US market-driven model; and China’s state-driven model) is likely to become even more visible. Brussels will face serious challenges in enforcing its rights-driven digital regulation, which is directly linked to the European democracy shield initiative.
The roundtable discussion took a bird’s-eye view of the challenges to our global information sphere, as well as the solutions. Meanwhile, current developments underscored the pertinence of the topic: Just four days before the event, Romania became the first EU country to cancel an election over foreign interference, following reports about information manipulation on TikTok. Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) held an exchange of views with TikTok over compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA). On 17 December 2024, the European Commission made statements, accompanied by a debate, in Parliament on misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms and risks to the integrity of elections in Europe. The following day, Parliament voted to establish a new Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield.
Indeed, as the exchange with the audience at the EPRS event also illustrated, democracy cannot be taken for granted. Against this backdrop, the discussion on the role of information integrity in a potential European democracy shield – and how to link such a shield with the rest of the world – could hardly have been more timely and relevant.
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