Recent crises have demonstrated that society is vulnerable to “alternative facts”, made-up versions of reality. The difficulty of many to differentiate truth and opinion from falsehood is exacerbated by insufficient digital media literacy and has proven especially dangerous ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Disinformation campaigns can be well-resourced by influential actors – in some instances, as is the case with the Russian government, they are used as a foreign policy hybrid warfare tool used to destabilise democratic societies. Plain misinformation can have a similar effect despite being uncoordinated.
To counter these threats, it is essential to advance cooperation through tools that enable a more effective understanding and countering of dis- and misinformation. DISARM - Disinformation Analysis and Risk Management seeks to do exactly this: creating a common language for disinformation defenders, enabling them to act on digital threats in a coordinated manner.
The Alfred Landecker Foundation supports Alliance4Europe to further develop and promote the Framework amongst others through:
- Scaling the existing network to connect and support a wider, more diverse cohort of democracy defenders and facilitate coordination and cooperation amongst them.
- Community growth, by providing DISARM tools of the Framework and convene training workshops to a wide range of users in the field.
- Technical expansion of the development of the cybersecurity framework that responds to disinformation & influence operations.
Ensuring an open-source, independent and accessible governance structure that has strong checks and balances, thus allowing an increasing number of actors to rely on verified tools provided under the DISARM framework.
