Future shocks 2023: Strategic and systemic threats to the democratic information sphere

European Parliament - EPRS Policy podcasts

European Parliament Webmaster

Government & Organizations, Non-profit

4.8 • 13 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2023

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The democratic information sphere is facing unprecedented strategic and systemic threats. The 'infosphere' - the online public space for debate where people not only express, but also inform themselves to make democratic decisions - is being eroded by foreign and domestic anti-democratic forces with a (geo-) strategic agenda. According to a flash Eurobarometer survey published in July 2022, 28% of respondents said they had been exposed to disinformation and 'fake news' very often or often in their recent past.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.
0:05.2	In this podcast, we will delve into the strategic and system threats facing the democratic
0:10.2	information sphere, one of the 15 risks identified and analyzed by the EPRS in their Future
0:16.7	Shocks 2030 report. Want to know more? Stay with us. Disinformation, information manipulation and
0:26.7	interference, propaganda, organized lies are affecting all democratic public spheres. Digitalization
0:34.3	has put these techniques on steroids and turned them into powerful weapons against democracy.
0:42.4	In a Eurobarometer survey from 2022, about one in three respondents said they'd been exposed to disinformation or fake news often over the past week.
0:53.7	And the level of confidence in their ability to spot this varied according to their education
0:58.7	level.
0:59.1	The rise of online information platforms combined with pressures on traditional media, crackdowns
1:05.3	on media freedom and increasing governmental interference in public broadcasters, also in
1:10.8	Europe, are threatening
1:12.0	the democratic information sphere.
1:14.1	At the same time, the boundaries between domestic and foreign actors who engage in information
1:19.1	manipulation are increasingly blurred.
1:22.6	Think back to the capital attack in January 2021, where former US President Donald Trump's false narrative
1:29.4	about an alleged stolen election contributed to the violence.
1:34.2	The effects of these anti-democratic narratives are in line with and benefit foreign
1:39.3	authoritarian actors such as the Kremlin.
1:41.8	Geostrategic and financial incentives to spread misleading information
1:45.6	also overlap. The infrastructure provided by the leading tech companies facilitates the booming
1:51.6	business of miss and disinformation across the world. At the same time, the attention-based
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