U.S. ends cooperation with EU to counter disinformation from Russia, China, and Iran—media

The US has informed EU nations that it is abandoning joint efforts to combat disinformation from countries such as Russia, China, and Iran.

This was reported by the Financial Times, citing three European officials familiar with the topic.

Last week, the EU nations received a notification from the State Department that the US was terminating memoranda of understanding signed last year under the Joe Biden administration, which aimed to develop a unified approach to identifying and exposing malicious information spread by foreign governments seeking to sow chaos.

The move came against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s elimination of government agencies that were supposed to protect the integrity of US elections and combat foreign malign influence at home and abroad.

The memos were part of an initiative led by the Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department agency that combats disinformation spread abroad by U.S. adversaries and terrorist groups.

James Rubin, who headed the center until December, called the move a “unilateral act of disarmament” in the information war with Russia and China.

“Information warfare is a reality of our time, and artificial intelligence will only increase the risks associated with it,” Rubin said.

The center was created in 2011 to counter terrorist propaganda and violent extremism online. Its mission was later expanded to track and expose disinformation campaigns abroad.

It was shut down in December after Republican skeptics in Congress blocked efforts to extend the agency’s mandate. Its functions were briefly reorganized into an office within the State Department, which was then closed by the Trump administration in April. Termination of the memoranda of understanding is the final step in ending the program.

In recent years, Russia has waged an aggressive disinformation campaign to sow chaos and undermine support for Ukraine and the Western countries.

Last September, the GEC accused the Russian state-funded television channel RT of acting on behalf of Russian intelligence services, using cyber espionage, and attempting to manipulate the presidential election in Moldova in Moscow’s favor. The United States has imposed sanctions on RT and other Russian state broadcasters for their role in spreading disinformation.

The channel was banned in continental Europe and the United Kingdom following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the aim of undermining the Kremlin’s war propaganda.

In the context of Russian interference in the internal affairs of countries, we note that Moldovan President Maia Sandu recently stated that Russia is preparing unprecedented interference in the parliamentary elections. Sandu expects disinformation and public opinion manipulation campaigns organized from abroad and the organization of paid protests, as well as sabotage of the vote in the diaspora.