Euractiv: Europe’s battle against AI-fuelled Kremlin lies

The Euractiv portal has published an article dedicated to the problem of the spread of Russian disinformation in Europe and measures to neutralize it, Report informs.

The article focuses on Russia's use of AI capabilities to create fake narratives and the difficulties the EU faces in combating this threat.

The article notes that disinformation supported by the Russian Federation is aimed at undermining trust in European institutions and increasing social discord.

"Kremlin-aligned AI networks are flooding Europe’s fact checkers with deepfakes, forged articles and bot-driven spin, putting the EU’s Digital Services Act to its toughest test yet. Since June 2024, the Kremlin-driven Operation Overload has become Europe’s most sustained disinformation blitz against the fact-checking community. According to a newly released report by CheckFirst and Reset Tech, Operation Overload’s AI-driven narrative variants are popping up faster than fact-checkers can knock them down, turning Europe’s information space into a perpetual game of disinformation whack-a-mole.

Since September 2024, the Russian-backed operation (also known as Matryoshka) has more than doubled its email attacks, overwhelming media and fact-checking communities with an average of 2.6 fabricated pitches per day – more than doubling since the campaign began. In the same way that waves of drones or missiles can overwhelm air defences, this operation seeks to do the same to journalists and fact-checkers. Fake emails are only the tip of the iceberg for this coordinated propaganda machine. According to the Overload report this includes 11,000 crypto-themed ‘reposter’ bots on Twitter/X and thousands of deepfake videos," reads the article.

Particular attention is paid to attempts to influence public opinion in the context of the conflict in Ukraine, where disinformation seeks to weaken support for Kyiv: "AI-driven content creation has become the operation’s backbone. Deepfake audio, AI-generated images and “magazine cover” forgeries now churn out at scale, each twisted around a “kernel of truth”. To evade detection they include isolated reports, such as Ukrainian call-centre irregularities, or decontextualise verifiable details of events."

The article also points out methods of combating false information in Europe, using the example of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which obliges social networks to combat fake content. The EU is seeking to hold tech companies accountable for the disinformation they spread, the article notes.

Media literacy and fact-checking programs are also being actively developed to teach citizens to recognize lies. At the same time, the authors of the article call on Europe to take tougher measures to combat deepfakes, expressing concern about the insufficient counteraction to the spread of disinformation. The importance of international cooperation in tracking and neutralizing propaganda is also emphasized.

Euractiv emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach: a combination of technology, education, and strict regulation can help Europe cope with this 'whack-a-mole war.' The article calls for further efforts to protect the EU information space from external manipulation, organize the exchange of threat information in real time across multiple platforms, and invest heavily in AI-based information detection.

At the same time, the authors point out the difficulties along this path: The adaptability of disinformation, its speed, and the anonymity of its sources make it extremely difficult to combat. There is also a risk that over-regulation could restrict free speech, which has raised public concerns, according to the article.