Community engagement in the fight against disinformation

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a conference underscoring the importance of community engagement in the fight against disinformation. By fostering media literacy, encouraging critical thinking, promoting active communication and leveraging AI as an ally, societies can be resilient to false information and toxic propaganda.

The conference Citizens can defeat disinformation held in Lisbon on 22 May 2025 was the fourth in a row, as part of the EESC’s ongoing project to combat disinformation with the help of civil society. It was implemented in cooperation with the Portuguese Economic and Social Council, and with the support of the European Commission Representation and the European Parliament Office in the Portuguese capital.

New technologies are used to spread disinformation, which has become a serious societal problem, with a negative impact on the quality of democracy and public debate, creating highly polarised societies. As Luís Pais Antunes, President of the Portuguese Economic and Social Council, said, not only misinformation and a lack of information but also an excess of information could be enormous challenges for modern societies, which calls for civil society involvement in combating disinformation.

Stressing the crucial role of citizens in this fight, EESC President Oliver Röpke said: ‘To counter disinformation, we must empower citizens and civil society not only as watchdogs, but also as active participants in democratic resilience. The EESC is committed to a multi-layered participatory approach. Through our Citizens can defeat disinformation conferences we are building a united front rooted in transparency, cooperation and trust. Dialogue must prevail over division. This is how we safeguard democracy.’

Sofia Moreira De Sousa, Head of the European Commission Representation in Portugal, pointed out that one of the basic principles of the EU, freedom of choice, is under threat: ‘Freedom of choice is impossible to achieve if our choices are biased and based on false information.’

Both the EU and the Member States have taken steps to combat disinformation with a package of tools including the European Digital Media Observatory, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the European Democracy Shield.

Additionally, Siim Kumpas, Team Leader of the Policy, Strategy and Partnership Team at the European External Action Service (EEAS), said that his team has developed another tool, the EU Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) Toolbox, as a significant step towards building a community-based approach and a genuine network of anti-FIMI defenders made up of civil society and other stakeholders. In parallel, the EuvsDisinfo project has so far collected and debunked 19031 cases of disinformation.

As disinformation plays with emotions, a pause and distance are needed before engaging. The participants flagged that, when something speaks to the audience’s heart, it is important to question the intention and source of the information. Only by not engaging can we reduce the visibility and virality of such content.

The conference signalled the importance of joining forces, stressing that only by acting together, engaging civil society in a systematic way, putting forward action plans for media literacy and robust legislation, can disinformation be defeated, giving way to trustful, fact-based information.

Education and media literacy are key to combating fake news. People must be educated on how they can defeat disinformation with the right tools. This is the goal of the FACT project run by the Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr, which teaches young people how to identify and debunk mis- and disinformation. Cátia Lopes explained that activities include showing young people how to verify information and fact-check. She stressed that strategies should always be focused on education and empathy, and that defeating disinformation should involve all sectors of civil society and government.

‘Media literacy needs to be taught in school, and this is where the state plays a key role. Democracy means credibility,’ said Aimilios Perdikaris, Chair of the Board and General Manager at Athens Macedonian News Agency.

Along the same lines, Carlos Abreau Amorim, Portugal’s Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, stated that the Portuguese government will continue to invest in fact-checking tools and put forward an action plan for media literacy. ‘Democracy cannot survive without free information and without free, impartial and critical media,’ he said, who adding that the government would continue to align with EU regulations. In parallel, the Portuguese government will strengthen journalistic ethics, since ‘a lack of credibility in journalism is the greatest ally of disinformation.’

To that end, Luísa Meireles, Chief Information Officer at Lusa News Agency, emphasised that the crisis amongst journalists has called into question the prerequisites for fact-checking. ‘The best journalist is the one who publishes first, not the one who publishes safe content, thus creating a damaging trend, leaving fact-checking to a later stage.’

Referring to AI as a massive challenge in disinformation, Niko Efstathiou, Journalist Fellow, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford, said that AI can create convincing, deepfake news to spread campaigns with extraordinary precision to the most vulnerable populations. But, on the other hand, AI can be incredibly useful in scanning through content, so as to detect misinformation in real time.

Even though there is a climate where there is pressure against regulation and the EU is seen as a censor, regulation can be a powerful tool in this fight. As Alfredo Sousa De Jesus, Head of the European Parliament Office in Lisbon, explained, ‘It is not due to a lack of regulation and rules that it is a challenge for the EU to combat disinformation, but rather due to the extensive opportunities and spaces which allow disinformation to spread and make it difficult to tackle it.’

Sharing an optimistic view on combating disinformation, Katarzyna Szaran, Director of the Strategic Communication Department at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: ‘There are solutions to this well-known problem. A civil society approach, legislation and political initiative are important, but we all need to work together.’ The Resilience Council set up by the Polish Presidency aims to work with experts across fields to bring together ideas and solutions, focusing on increasing digital literacy. ‘This is why we are now proposing to bring this initiative to the EU level,’ she said.