Disinformation and online information manipulation have become one of the most pressing challenges for democratic societies worldwide. They increasingly shape public discourse on every topic, and in turn destabilize societies, undermine democratic institutions, exploiting regional vulnerabilities.

As 2025 starts, it is worth looking back to the past year and seeing how the evolving nature of disinformation has shaped our world. From AI-generated deepfakes to calculated political interference, 2024 has been a year of both cautionary tales and signs of hope. Yet, the events of the first days of 2025 indicate that the struggle to protect the truth online and safeguard the integrity of democratic processes from outside interference might be even more difficult than in the previous year.

Globally, election seasons have turned into ripe ground for the dissemination of all kinds of information including those that are false, exaggerated or misleading, undermining public confidence and the integrity of democratic processes. Disinformation has had a great impact on elections around the world, affecting voter decisions, widening societal divisions, and undermining trust in democratic institutions.

As the 2024 U.S. presidential election unfolds, disinformation campaigns are once again in the spotlight. But while much attention is focused on the U.S. domestic impact, it’s equally important to understand this phenomenon from a wider perspective. Europe’s own encounters with foreign-led disinformation offer crucial lessons and comparisons that highlight the challenges faced by democratic societies globally in an era when the line between reality and AI-generated fakes is more blurry than ever. As someone deeply involved in the study of disinformation and its socio-political impacts, I draw upon experience from other countries to shed light on the dangers posed by disinformation in the current U.S. presidential elections.

The message that the EU is useless for Moldova has been perpetuated for ten years, in all electoral periods: be it the general local, parliamentary or presidential elections, after Chișinău signed the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union. This autumn, when Moldovans choose their future country president, they will also decide the future of their country’s alliances: with the East or with the West.

On June 9th, Romanian citizens witnessed two separate rounds of elections, which were merged into one: both the local elections and the European Parliament elections. Over 500 independent observers from Funky Citizens monitored 1006 polling stations across Romania, dedicating 24 hours and sometimes even more to strengthen the democracy. Election observation plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the integrity of electoral processes, ensuring they are conducted fairly and democratically. Below, two of over 500 accredited independent observers from Funky Citizens talk about their experiences as the first-time observers — one in Brașov and the other in Bucharest.

For the better part of the last decade, we, as citizens of the modern setting, living our lives in a world where the Internet is part of our everyday existence, are aware of disinformation. Call it fake news, propaganda, misinformation, the umbrella of disinformation covers the many aspects of this topic. A rose by any other name: name it as you wish, it’s still the same thing.

Nowadays, almost anybody can create audio or video recordings of celebrities or regular people acting and talking in ways they never would have by using simple, widely accessible artificial intelligence software. The rights of the persons whose voices and images are being appropriated will need to be more seriously protected. Big tech-companies have teamed up in a historic attempt to stop the misuse application of AI in the upcoming elections throughout the world.

As the dust settles from the political storms related to elections that swept Poland and Slovakia in the fall of 2023, we dissect the disinformation tactics that played a crucial role in shaping the election outcomes. From attacking opponents with hoaxes to adopting anti-Ukrainian narratives, and even incorporating artificial intelligence to spread fabricated content, the playbook of political deception is evolving. What can we learn from that example?

In both rounds of the local elections in the Republic of Moldova, held in November 2023, the pro-Kremlin media used disinformation as a political tool. Old narratives, used in previous election campaigns, were recirculated, but also combined with pro-Kremlin narratives about the war in Ukraine, unachievable election promises and even using hate speech to denigrate the opponents.

As much of the world moves online, hostile state and non-state adversaries are increasingly targeting elections to undermine public trust in democratic processes in target societies. Elections represent part of the command-and-control system of the state’s decision-making, and foreign adversaries try to meddle in election processes to stimulate political changes and decision-making.

Within the Digital Activism Program conducted by TechSoup and its partners in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) since 2018, a pivotal activity focusing on supporting Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in being more resilient to disinformation has been underway. We believe at TechSoup that to bring about change, we must first diagnose the needs of the organizations we support and analyze the current socio-political situation in the countries where we operate. This belief is central to shaping the foundation for all future project activities.

From our second series, it is undoubtedly clear that there is still a lot more to be done for e-voting to effectively function and become a reality in Africa.

With the various types of internet voting in mind, what conditions must be in place for any of the types of internet voting to function effectively and efficiently in Africa? Financial, political, legal, social, technical and logistical, security, privacy, transparency, and trust are the eight needed ingredients to make e-voting a reality in Africa. Let’s delve more into these in the subsequent paragraphs.

What is the current situation in Africa and what forms of e-voting systems are available?

The term has taken the academic discussion of philosophers, journalists political scientists but is far from an intellectual discussion. It is present in our daily life and on our social networks.

PERSONAL DEMOCRACY FORUM UKRAINE (PDF UA 2022) is back!

This year PDF UA will be held on March 3-4 in Kyiv in a hybrid form.

The “Future of the Elections” is the main topic this year.

TechSoup Europe joins OPORA, TransparenCEE Network and OSCE ODIHR for the fifth time and brings "tech4good", transparency, and open data topics to the Ukrainian debate about democracy and the role of civil society.