LUSA 10/03/2025

Lusa - Business News - Portugal: Little investment in combating disinformation - report

Lisbon, Oct. 2, 2025 (Lusa) - Countries in the Euro-Atlantic region, such as Portugal, have insufficient resources to combat disinformation and invest less than threat actors in the information space, a report by the international organisation Hybrid COE said on Thursday.

"While there are many good counter-disinformation measures in place across the Euro-Atlantic region, the data shows that many professionals in European Union (EU) and Nato countries believe that all lines of their counter-disinformation work are under-resourced," reads the report.

The document suggests that there appears to be a lack of established mechanisms for cooperation between the authorities and the non-governmental sector. While "many countries are implementing tools to raise awareness of disinformation, but are doing less to limit or punish actors."

The report explains that the partnership between the governmental and non-governmental sectors on combating disinformation must increase, since "neither sector has a complete picture of the situation".

"If hybrid threat actors continue to outspend democratic countries in the information space, the spread of disinformation will continue and probably increase," say the report's authors.

"Euro-Atlantic states should also look for more ways to impose costs on information attackers, using a variety of tools, including sanctions, removals, public denunciations, labelling of disinformation, and the use of legislation."

In addition, these countries should adopt new tools to enhance their capabilities for detecting and monitoring the spread of disinformation, emphasizing that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is still relatively uncommon in this area.

In the survey of the 36 participating states, including Portugal, 83% of respondents agree that disinformation has been identified as a significant threat to the security of each country.

At the same time, 70% of respondents agree that there is systematised coordination between government entities to combat disinformation.

Regarding the main agents of disinformation, Russia is the most frequent answer, followed by China, domestic actors disseminating foreign disinformation, and domestic actors disseminating other types of disinformation.

"The situation has evolved since the first years of the renewal of the Kremlin's continuous disinformation campaigns after 2013-14 and the subsequent reaction of the European authorities, but challenges remain, the biggest of which is related to the lack of resources," says the information released.

Around 40% of participants perceive a lack of resources, "something particularly worrying in an environment where Russia has been spending more than the West on information for at least a decade".

Hybrid COE is an autonomous international organisation combating hybrid threats, which cooperates closely with the EU and NATO.

Within the EU, efforts to combat disinformation have been ongoing since 2015, with the EUvsDisinfo campaign. In 2021, more elaborate approaches were introduced, including the FIMI (Foreign Intelligence Manipulation and Interference) rules.

PYR/ADB // ADB.

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