Report March 2025
Submitted
Two main activities conducted by the GLOBSEC´s Centre for Democracy and Resilience (“Centre”) related to the Code are:
1. Research and Monitoring of disinformation: Centre regularly monitors the trends in narratives and methods used to spread disinformation, especially across the CEE region.
2. Awareness raising on disinformation: Centre engages with the public through a range of awareness-raising and capacity-building activities with a range of target groups on the issue of tackling disinformation and related topics.
GLOBSEC is participating in four subgroups: Crisis Response, Monitoring and Reporting, Generative AI subgroups and WG on elections. GLOBSEC assigned specific people to attend meetings of the specific Task-force subgroups and the team always makes sure there is a person present in case the assigned representative is not able to attend.
Main activities during the monitoring period (January 2024 – December 2024):
GLOBSEC Trends 2024: Released in May 2024, GLOBSEC Trends 2024 served as a key tool for analysing public perceptions of democracy, foreign influence, and disinformation across the CEE region. Leading up to the EP elections, utilising data from the Trends opinion poll, GLOBSEC published an analysis Elections to EU Parliament 2024: The Race to Mobilise Voters Starts Today, predicting voter turnout trends and highlighting vulnerabilities to populist narratives. The research findings directly contributed to shaping policy discussions at the GLOBSEC Prague Forum 2024, the NATO Public Forum, and expert consultations with EU and national regulators.
Policy Recommendations for the European Commission: GLOBSEC published the report Pivotal Moment for Europe: Central European Proposals for the Next EU Leadership, outlining recommendations from CEE countries to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness, security, and global influence. The report includes two key contributions from the Centre: Countering Foreign Malign Influence, which offers strategic guidance for the incoming European Commission on addressing hybrid threats, and Blueprint for Social Media Regulation, a policy paper balancing online platform regulation with free expression and security.
Media literacy and awareness-raising activities included:
Throughout the year, GLOBSEC actively participated in numerous events, conferences, and expert discussions, sharing insights on disinformation, hybrid threats, and the impact of digitalisation on democratic processes. Below is an overview of key contributions made across different months:
February
- GLOBSEC Trends data was presented at the Balkan Disinformation Summit in Kosovo, organised by the Geopost.
March
- GLOBSEC Trends data was presented to an audience of professors, researchers, and students at Amsterdam University.
- A presentation on information operations and their impact was delivered at a workshop organised by the Baltic Centre for Media Excellence for journalists and CSO representatives in Riga.
- Findings of GLOBSEC Trends were debated during an expert workshop titled Building Resilience to Hybrid Threats: Preparing for a Year of Elections, organised by GMF US in Warsaw, Poland.
May
- Insights on misinformation and polarisation in high-stakes elections were shared during a panel at the New Horizons in Journalism event, organised by the World Press Institute in Sofia.
- A discussion was held at an event co-organised by GLOBSEC and Political Capital, titled Keletre vagy Nyugatra mutat a magyarok iránytűje.
- A half-day event, Russia’s Disinformation in the War Against Ukraine: Understanding the Threat and Addressing It, was organised in cooperation with the Embassy in Lithuania and Poland.
June
- Potential solutions for countering hybrid threats in Europe, including strategies derived from GLOBSEC Trends data, were presented at a workshop on disinformation and foreign influence in European democratic processes, organised by the ECFR branch in Rome.
- Insights on The Impact of Digitalization on Democratic Processes were shared during the Digital Czechia event.
- Webinar titled Innovative Uses of AI by Civil Society in Europe was organised hosting speakers from DRI, Microsoft and indepdent consultat on the benefits of AI for civil society organisations.
September
- Slovakia’s experience with AI-generated content being used as a tool within influence operations during elections was discussed at the AI Symposium organised by IFES in Prague.
- A presentation was delivered at the Annual Conference of the Open Information Partnership in Albania during a session titled Mapping Disinformation beyond the Kremlin: Allies, Amplifiers, and Illiberal Regimes.
October
- A presentation was delivered at an expert seminar titled Disinformation in the Western Balkans and the European Neighbourhood, organised by CIDOB, a think tank in Barcelona.
November
- Contributions were made at Megaphone 2024 and CODECON conferences in Slovakia.
- A discussion took place at the Transatlantic Policy Forum in Prague.
- A lecture was delivered on how to detect information operations and the vulnerabilities of Slovak society to students of journalism and participants of the EU Media Campus in Bratislava, Slovakia.
December
- Key vulnerabilities to malign influence across Europe were presented at the seminar Information Warfare, Hybrid Threats and Nuclear Risk: The Hidden Threats of a Digital Age, organised by Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and G7 Italy.
- Trends in influence operations in the CEE region were presented at the DISICON conference, organised by NDI Kosovo, during an expert session titled The Interplay Between Security and Information Integrity.
- In cooperation with the Alliance4Europe GLOBSEC organised an expert online roundtable on the lessons learned from elections in Romania and Moldova.