Information Warfare and Foreign Interference
Tuesday 28 May 2024
Tuesday 28 May 2024 10:00am to 4:30p.m
IRSEM-EUROPE
Summary
Our speakers will delve into the landscape of competition over strategic narratives, examining the multifaceted challenges posed by interference in electoral processes. They will shed light on how democratic states' vulnerabilities are exploited and discuss the viewpoints of state-sponsored media outlets such as RT and CGTN. Additionally, the discussion will extend to the exploration of digital methodologies for analyzing influence and disinformation campaigns by both state and non-state actors, broadening our comprehension of contemporary information warfare.
1/ How do state-sponsored media narrate wars and conflicts? 2/ Disinformation and democracies: discussing the challenges to improve societal resilience. 3/ What methods and tools are used to study and debunk disinformation processes?
Program
Introduction : Philippe Perchoc/Benoît Rademacher 5 mn (10h-10h05)
Keynote : Siim Kumpas, Head of Policy, Strategy & Global Priority Issues Team, European External Action Service (FIMI) (10h05-10h25)
Panel 1: Autocracies' informational influence abroad: Evolving actors and practices (10h30-12h)
Chair : Jeanne Maurin-Bonini, IRSEM
1- Maxime Audinet, IRSEM: “Towards a ‘Partisanization’ of Information Warfare? The mutations of Russia’s Influence Apparatus Since the Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine”
2- Paul Charon, IRSEM: "The New Clothes of China's Propaganda. The Case of CGTN".
3- Sophia Mahroug: “Is Iran waging an information warfare? Understanding the Iranian 'Soft Defence' on French-speaking audiences” Lunch break (12h00-13h00)
Panel 2: Countering Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) in Electoral Context: Response from Democratic Countries (13h15– 14h45)
Chair – Naja Bentzen, Policy Analyst, Digital Policies Unit, European Parliamentary Research Service
1- Maud Quessard, IRSEM: “Lessons learned in lost battles to improve societal resilience to disinformation - the US & the meddling in electoral processes”
2- Marek Kohv, ICDS: “Countering Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference in Electoral Context”.
3- Alexandre Alaphilippe, EU Disinfo LAB, "Foreign interference, disinformation and regulation: a complex but not impossible puzzle"
Short break (15min)
Panel 3: Studying Disinformation and Information Warfare: Methodological Innovations and Prospects (15h00 – 16h30)
Chair : Maxime Audinet, IRSEM
1- Dusan Bozalka, IRSEM: "Analyzing Strategic and Transnational Conspiracy Narratives as a Conduit for Distrust in Electoral Processes: A Case Study on Alternative Platforms.”
2- Julia Kling, Uni Passau: “Studying the Distribution of Pro-Kremlin Propaganda on Facebook: How Russia’s News Ecosystem Changed since Russia's Full-scale Invasion of Ukraine
