Strengthening Resilience To Disinformation The State Of Affairs And

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 5, 2025, 10:24 PM

strengthening resilience to disinformation the state of affairs and

On 8 May 2023, the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM), the Croatian media regulatory authority, released the English edition of the study “Strengthening Resilience to Disinformation: The State of Affairs and Guidelines for Action”. This comprehensive study, which was authored i.a. by Dr. Marijana Grbeša Zenzerović and Dr. Iva Nenadić and edited by Robert Tomljenović (AEM) provides a: The aim of this study is to elaborate the basic standards, activities and criteria with a view to providing information and guidance for designing and implementing public tenders for activities and projects as part...

The report concludes that Croatia, as a society "with low levels of trust in institutions, underdeveloped political culture and low professional standards in journalism, is particularly vulnerable and subject to disinformation campaigns" and that... Join War on the Rocks and gain access to content trusted by policymakers, military leaders, and strategic thinkers worldwide. In August, Meta announced a takedown of the “largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world.” Information security officers removed 7700 accounts, 954 pages, and 15 groups linked to individuals employed by Chinese... The scope of the operation was stunning. It targeted over 50 platforms and applications including YouTube, Reddit, X, TikTok, Pinterest, and Medium. The operation, part of what security professionals have named the “Spamouflage” network, focused on improving foreign perceptions of Chinese foreign policy, attacking critics of the Chinese Communist Party, and denigrating the United States and...

The operation is further proof of a concerning trend: the People’s Republic of China is embracing misinformation and disinformation in its influence operations, using methods and techniques traditionally employed by Russia. These operations are now commonplace. U.S. allies and partners are under constant attack by adversary disinformation campaigns. While Russia remains the largest perpetrator of global disinformation, China executes disinformation campaigns against the United States and its Indo-Pacific allies with impunity. The Russian and Chinese governments seek to influence elections, exploit societal cleavages, and undermine trust in democratic and governmental institutions — threatening the rules-based international order itself.

The U.S. government has done little to properly frame and prioritize this threat. Misinformation and disinformation are mentioned only once in the entire 2022 National Defense Strategy. The oversight is glaring given the gravity of the threat and the intense focus given to integrated deterrence and related concepts such as “deterrence by resilience,” a loosely defined concept that emphasizes the hardening... To protect U.S. interests abroad and uphold a system of equitable global governance, the United States should be able to protect and withstand disruption at home and throughout its alliance networks within the information domain.

The United States should develop and champion the concept of information resilience. The United States should harden and protect its population, along with those of its allies and partners, against disinformation, adversary influence operations, and lawfare that harm democracy and the rule of law. The United States and its allies and partners should develop a shared understanding of international law and ensure that their militaries and civil servants are trained in what that law is and how to... The United States should also clear its own legal obstacles to interagency cooperation to enable it to adequately respond to disinformation attacks. Introduction: The Disinformation Dilemma and the 2024 Election The 21st century presents a paradox: despite unprecedented access to information, the public is not necessarily better informed.

The decline of traditional news, the rise of inflammatory content online, and the ease of creating and disseminating disinformation, particularly with AI tools, contribute to this problem. The 2024 presidential election highlighted these challenges, with disinformation campaigns ranging from AI-generated robocalls to false claims about social issues. Xenophobia, transphobia, and racism further complicated the landscape, intertwining prejudice with perceptions of truth. Simultaneously, social media platforms scaled back content moderation, and legal pressures hampered counter-disinformation research, demanding innovative solutions. PEN America’s Localized Approach: Empowering Communities Against Disinformation PEN America’s Disinformation and Community Engagement (DCE) program addressed this challenge by focusing on local initiatives.

Recognizing that disinformation is a global problem requiring localized solutions, the program piloted interventions in Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Phoenix. These rapidly growing, diverse Sunbelt cities served as bellwethers for understanding how disinformation operates and how communities react to counter-programming. The program aimed to distribute trustworthy information, amplify local perspectives on disinformation’s impact, and cultivate critical information consumption skills. While nonpartisan, the program acknowledged the highly polarized political climate surrounding the 2024 election and the frequent weaponization of the term "disinformation" itself. The Post-Election Landscape: Disinformation’s Enduring Power and the Need for Resilience The United States National Security Strategy recognizes the need to combat misinformation and disinformation to employ integrated deterrence successfully.

The Air Force Culture and Language Center addresses that priority through an educational video series on its Culture Guide app focused on helping total force Airmen and the Department of Defense develop resilience to... “Strategic competitors like Russia and China, as well as Violent Extremist Organizations and non-political disrupters, use misinformation and disinformation campaigns to recruit members to their cause, divide our society domestically, and create rifts between... Elizabeth Peifer, AFCLC’s Associate Professor of Regional and Cultural Studies (Europe). “We are less able to put up a strong defense if we are divided socially and if our alliances and partnerships are torn.” Dr. Peifer’s academic interests include radicalism and extremism, public memory and narrative, and European security issues.

These diverse research areas converge on the problem of disinformation and its impact on military operations. Her study of factors that make disinformation effective led to developing this series as a constructive and practical approach to the problem. The new four-part video series discusses vulnerabilities to misinformation and disinformation in the military setting and innovative tools and techniques for service members to detect, evaluate, and combat manipulative information to make informed decisions... Part one of the series provides an overview of the problem of disinformation and misinformation. Part two promotes greater self-awareness by analyzing aspects of cognitive behavior and social psychology that make individuals more susceptible to manipulation through disinformation. Part three helps viewers gain situational awareness with an understanding of the Internet and patterns of disinformation in the digital landscape.

And finally, part four concludes the series with practical ways to protect against misinformation and disinformation with tools and techniques for evaluating online sources. You have full access to this open access article A Correction to this article was published on 31 May 2025 This article addresses the critical issue of societal resilience in the face of disinformation, particularly in highly digitized democratic societies. Recognizing the escalating impact of disinformation as a significant threat to societal security, the study conducts a scoping review of the literature from 2018 to 2022 to explore the current understanding and approaches to... The core contribution of the article is the development of a preliminary typological framework that addresses key elements and issue areas relevant to societal resilience to disinformation.

This framework spans multiple dimensions, including legal/regulatory, educational, political/governance, psychological/social-psychological, and technological domains. By synthesizing existing knowledge and filling identified gaps, the framework aims to serve as a foundational tool for empirical analyses and the enhancement of resilience strategies. One of the innovative aspects of the proposed framework is its potential to be transformed into a computable and customizable tool. This tool would measure the maturity level of various countermeasures against disinformation, thereby providing a practical methodology for planning and implementing effective democratic responses to disinformation. The article emphasizes the importance of this framework as both a conceptual and practical guide. It offers valuable insights for a wide range of civil society actors, including policymakers, educators, and technologists, in their efforts to protect information integrity and bolster societal resilience.

By laying the groundwork for a more comprehensive understanding of societal resilience to disinformation, the article contributes to the broader discourse on information protection and provides actionable guidance for addressing the evolving challenges posed... Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript. In highly digitized democratic societies, there are growing concerns about the impact of disinformation. European countries have faced significant challenges related to disinformation issues, such as elections, fundamental democratic values, pandemics, and migration, among others. This has prompted the European Commission (2018a) to outline four pillars in its action plan on tackling online disinformation. These include improving institutional capabilities, fostering coordinated responses, engaging the private sector, and raising awareness.

The Digital Services Act (European Union 2022) has binding regulatory powers to address large social media platforms, for instance, if they are deemed to be promoting and disseminating disinformation. However, the effectiveness of these measures remains uncertain. The Global Risks Report 2024 by the World Economic Forum (2024) clearly illustrates this, ranking disinformation as the most severe short-term (2-year) global risk and placing societal polarization in third place – with both... On November 29 and December 6, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy hosted a two-part, public discussion series Fortifying the Future: Building Resilience in the Age of Disinformation. The series, which brought together experts with diverse public sector, business, media, military, and academic backgrounds, sought to bring greater awareness to, and lay out potential policy solutions for, the rampant problem of disinformation. While social media channels and new technologies have rightly been lauded for their ability to foster community and bridge global divides, they can also create challenges when weaponized by nefarious actors.

Disinformation campaigns are underway and routinely spread skepticism and animosity within civil society, the press, and, critically, between the public and their elected officials. Disinformation can easily and cheaply be used to persuade the public at an accelerated and dangerous rate, just as the very algorithms utilized by digital platforms inadvertently encourage the sharing of false information. The report linked above is a summation of the discussions held over the two public sessions. It outlines the key issues at hand and navigates the potential means to build resilience against an amorphous threat. Key policy recommendations drawn from the discussions are noted at the conclusion. Disinformation, information manipulation and interference are forms of hybrid threats manifesting across the world.

The threat is always present and expanding; a growing number of actors are using an increasing number of tactics. This is a global challenge also affecting the Western Balkans. Dealing with this challenge requires a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach, which the EU is supporting across the region. Strengthening partnerships with international and local organizations – governmental and non-governmental – helps build the resilience local populations need to autonomously identify and tackle disinformation, and increases the capacity of the Western Balkans partners... This work remains crucial for strengthening democracy, for example in relation to protecting the integrity of elections, access to information, and media freedom. Increasing media literacy is also of high importance.

Being able to critically assess, use and create information is a key skill in the 21st century, allowing citizens to navigate the information environment and make well-informed choices. It also facilitates their responsible participation in political processes and voting in democratic elections, free from interference and manipulation. In line with the overall EU efforts in this field, the EU supports activities to enhance media literacy in the Western Balkans. This includes research studies throughout the region which raise awareness and build social resilience such as “Disinformation in the Online Sphere: The Case of BiH” and "Disinformation and Information Distortion in North Macedonia", capacity-building... Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 11, Article number: 101 (2024) Cite this article As social media is a key conduit for the distribution of disinformation, much of the literature on disinformation in elections has been focused on the internet and global social media platforms.

Literature on societal and media trust has also grown in recent years. Yet, disinformation is not limited to global platforms or the internet, traditional media outlets in many European countries act as vehicles of disinformation often under the direction of the government. Moreover, the connection between trust and resilience to disinformation has been less discussed. This article is aimed at tackling the question of what makes a country vulnerable to or resilient against online disinformation. It argues that a society’s information resilience can be viewed as a combination of structural characteristics, features of its knowledge-distribution institutions including its media system, and the activities and capabilities of its citizens. The article makes this argument by describing these dimensions in four European case countries, based on comparable statistics and document analyses.

Strengthening Resilience To Disinformation The State Of Affairs And

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