Securing Democracy Dispatch

Public and private actors who work to counter foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) face a proliferating number of state and nonstate actors, new threat vectors, and increasing hostility toward counter-FIMI efforts. Civil servants and civil society must continue collaboration and efforts to change the terms of public debate over how these operations affect democratic freedoms, Managing Director David Salvo tells the London FIMI Forum.

Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• Possible US-Russia Summit in Budapest: Russian officials and state media accused the West, but especially the EU, of undermining a potential “Budapest Summit” between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia’s special economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev blamed Western media for distorting reports about the summit to undermine it. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova speculated that such “media farce” serves as a “lifeline for [Ukrainian President Volodomyr] Zelenskyy,” while RT en Français labeled Western media’s buzz around the summit “a geopolitical soap opera”. TASS cited Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, who emphasized that Brussels should have done everything to support the Budapest summit if it truly wanted peace in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed this assessment, noting that “Europe is against peace and only incites Kyiv to continue the war”.
• US-Venezuela Crisis: Russian propaganda outlets claimed that the United States is preparing a coup d’état in Venezuela to control its oil resources. RT featured an interview with US journalist Max Blumenthal, who called US strikes on alleged drug vessels “Trump’s propaganda show” and suggested that the United States is plotting a coup under the leadership of Venezuelan dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, whom Blumenthal dubbed “[former Chilean dictator Augusto] Pinochet in a skirt”. Afshin Rattansi, the host of RT’s Going Underground, lamented that Fox News host Sean Hannity floated the idea of occupying Venezuela, while US Senator Lindsey Graham supported it becoming the 51st state. RT en Español and Sputnik Mundo cited Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who asserted that “oil greed” is behind US attacks on “fishermen” in the Caribbean. TASS reported that on Tuesday Russia’s State Duma ratified a strategic partnership and cooperation treaty with Caracas, which, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, would be “very important” if the United States exerts “unprecedented military pressure” on Venezuela.

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• Trade Tensions: Last week, PRC diplomats and state media deployed familiar arguments in response to ongoing trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. The spokesperson for the PRC’s MFA defended his country’s own restrictions on rare-earths exports as “consistent with international practice”, while China Daily portrayed the United States as an arbitrary bully and called on US officials to “check the mirror” before “lecturing the world”. CGTN suggested that US consumers would bear the brunt of their government’s tariffs. PRC messaging also highlighted the negative impact of the tariffs for Hollywood and US soybean producers, while also implying that Washington’s policies were making US exporters lose out to Canada and Germany. Chinese state media harped on the negative consequences of the US “shakedown” for the rest of the world, with CGTN America relaying an estimate that the tariffs would cost “global businesses” $1.2 trillion by the end of the year. PRC diplomats in the United States and Ireland contrasted the US tariffs with their country’s robust trade with the rest of the world.
• Fragile Ceasefire: PRC messaging covered the Israeli air strikes in Rafah, Palestine in retaliation for an alleged Hamas attack that killed two Israeli soldiers. Despite noting that the ceasefire was holding up, CGTN Europe continued to relay returning Palestinians’ humanitarian plight. To highlight the scale of the destruction caused by several years of bombing, Xinhua quoted a Palestinian official who blamed the “Israeli war machine”, while CGTN branches amplified several UN officials who spoke of the difficulties of the road ahead. On TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, CGTN Europe explained that excavators were needed to search for bodies in Gaza’s rubbles. There was also some optimism, with the People’s Daily covering the release of humanitarian aid to Gaza and CGTN Frontline showing relatively bustling streets in the southern part of the territory. PRC state media also amplified pro-Palestine protests in Yemen and interviewed activists denouncing “the colonial elements that seek to strip and rob the people of Palestine” of their right to international justice.

Iranian diplomats and state media focused on one main narrative this week:

• Iran’s Nuclear Program: Iranian state messengers dedicated significant coverage to the termination of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231—which endorsed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—on October 18. Iran’s Foreign Ministry argued that Iran’s nuclear file should be removed from the UN Security Council’s agenda following the resolution’s expiration and reiterated Tehran’s right to peaceful nuclear activities. Iran’s Foreign Minister Sayed Abbas Araghchi amplified a joint letter from Iran, China, and Russia to the UN Secretary General that claimed France, Germany, and the United Kingdom’s activation of the snapback mechanism was “legally and procedurally flawed”, thereby nullifying Resolution 2231. The letter was reposted across Iran’s diplomatic channels. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei similarly tried to lessen the reality of Tehran’s nuclear situation, mocking Trump’s recent comments about dismantling Tehran’s nuclear program and saying he should “keep dreaming”.

Pro-Kremlin information campaign accuses France of framing Russia over Louvre heist: A network of pro-Russian websites and social-media profiles is accusing France of framing Russia for a burglary at the Louvre museum, citing unsubstantiated claims made by other pro-Russian pages that French authorities planted a Russian passport at the crime scene, according to a NewsGuard investigation. The French Ministry of Culture’s press release did not mention a passport being left behind. Senior Fellow Bret Schafer writes, “This is a perfect example of how easy it is to manufacture controversy simply by inventing a false narrative, using another source to debunk it, and then citing the ‘debunked’ claim to attack the alleged source of the false information. We’ve seen Russian-linked actors use this tactic countless times, including via their bogus fact-checking efforts that are occasionally used to debunk disinformation of their own making.”

X to show more information about user accounts: X is working on new features that would display more information about users’ accounts—including the date of the account’s creation, location, and how many times its username has been modified—in an effort to allow users to better judge the authenticity of content on the site. Senior Investigative Research Officer Peter Benzoni says, “Name changes and seeing from where an account is administered can be a powerful tool in the hands of investigators. For example, Code for Africa’s investigators used a similar Facebook feature to show suspected Russian state capture of the Presidency of the Central African Republic’s Facebook page. However, on X, these efforts are often more whack-a-mole than systemic analysis and response due to their continued hostility toward platform-level research efforts, including prohibitively expensive and underfeatured API access.”

In case you missed it

• Irish presidential candidate Catherine Connolly filed a formal complaint with Ireland’s electoral commission after an AI-generated deepfake spread on social media days before Friday’s election. The video depicted her ending her campaign and two commentators on a major Irish news channel discussing her withdrawal’s implications for the race.
• Romanian and Polish authorities arrested eight people allegedly planning to carry out a sabotage operation involving sending explosive parcels to Ukraine through mail services operating on EU soil on Russia’s behalf.
• The Indian government proposed rules that would require social-media and AI companies to clearly label AI-generated content online.
• The US government sanctioned Russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil; the EU similarly strengthened restrictions on Rosneft and Gazprom Neft and agreed to phase out liquefied natural gas purchases from Russia.
• Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović has asked EU leaders for assistance in combating Russian information operations seeking to disrupt the country’s bid to join the EU.

How Trump’s Use of AI Videos Is Changing His Political Playbook. Senior Fellow Bret Schafer quoted in TIME

Miliony wyświetleń, zero faktów. Fake news szkodzi Ukraińcom (Millions of views, zero facts. Fake news harms Ukrainians). ASD research/“From Russia With Spin” cited in CyberDefence24 (in Polish)

The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone.