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Europe, Seeking To Censor Americans, Has Labeled The US A “Foreign Information” Threat
Public.news ^ | October 8, 2026 | Michael Shellenberger

Posted on 10/09/2026 6:12:16 AM PDT by lowbridge

The European Union is financing a conference, #Disinfo2026, that delivers an extraordinary rebuke to the Trump administration by claiming the US is engaged in “foreign information manipulation and interference” (FIMI). EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels nonprofit, is holding its annual conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, which began yesterday and continues today. Its program lists a session titled “USA as a FIMI threat: acknowledge, adapt, push back,” and billed three Americans as speakers: Adam Fivenson of American University, the former CIA officer who writes as Alex Finley, and Emerson Brooking of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

The session description asked, “how did the United States become a FIMI threat for Europe?” A second session, on the Arctic, went further than a question. It promised a discussion of “growing evidence that the United States has, in specific Arctic contexts, operated as a FIMI actor.” Finley and Brooking did not respond to requests for comment.

The EU has given EU DisinfoLab about €1.1 million in research grants on disinformation since 2018. The group received €250,000 from a project called WeVerify that ran from 2018 to 2021. It received €327,500 from vera.ai, a project funded under a call titled “AI to fight disinformation,” and took another €212,500 from a project called ATHENA that runs through October 2026. A fourth grant, of more than €308,000, began in June 2026 and runs to 2029.

The attack on the Trump administration by EU DisinfoLab appears to be part of a larger EU effort to censor social media platforms in general and Elon Musk’s X in particular. The EU has fined X €120 million, about $140 million, under its Digital Services Act. X is appealing the fine.

The United States State Department denounced the conference’s organizers for attacking the United States

(Excerpt) Read more at public.news ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: censorship; elitisteurotrash; europe
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1 posted on 10/09/2026 6:12:16 AM PDT by lowbridge
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To: lowbridge

EU countries and leaders that trample on free speech should be as heavily sanctioned by the US as Cuba and its leaders are.

There should be no flights from the USA (or bookings allowed) to the UK.


2 posted on 10/09/2026 6:20:34 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: lowbridge

To ensure free speech in the USA we should work to ensure free speech in the EU, UK and Australia.


3 posted on 10/09/2026 6:22:53 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: lowbridge

4 posted on 10/09/2026 6:26:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: lowbridge

Then don’t call US when the bear comes out of the woods.


5 posted on 10/09/2026 6:32:00 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: lowbridge

The US should label the EU a threat to free speech and tell any social media/internet company that they will face severe sanctions if they implement any of the censorship the EU, Canada and Australia wants anywhere outside those countries.


6 posted on 10/09/2026 6:32:48 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: lowbridge

7 posted on 10/09/2026 6:33:24 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: lowbridge

OOPS!. Add the UK to the list of countries that are a threat to free speech.

Also, sanction the censors AND THE POLITICIANS WHO SUPPORT CENSORSHIP personally. No visas to enter America - I don’t care if they’re heads of state. No. Denied.


8 posted on 10/09/2026 6:34:16 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: lowbridge

Who had “Too much informationing” on their 2026 bingo card?


9 posted on 10/09/2026 6:35:01 AM PDT by AppyPappy (They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
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To: lowbridge

How much money has the U.S. wasted on European countries that are rapidly turning Islamocommunist?!?


10 posted on 10/09/2026 6:37:09 AM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: lowbridge

11 posted on 10/09/2026 6:39:08 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: Brian Griffin

Yes, but one-way only.


12 posted on 10/09/2026 6:40:35 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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13 posted on 10/09/2026 7:27:32 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: lowbridge

Ban all travel, trade and communications with Europe and the UK.

See what happens.

3,2,1…
Oh noes! That would destroy our economy!

Liberal tears!
Oh no! 😥 No more Fiats! Scotch, lingonberries or currants! 😩


14 posted on 10/09/2026 7:28:24 AM PDT by MrBambaLaMamba (Pעומ לצד ישראל. The only reason good commie is one that's dead - Country Joe McDonald )
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To: lowbridge
EU already dropped sponsorship of the event.

EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request

The Trump administration pressured multiple countries to withdraw their sponsorship of a leading European conference on disinformation, with Canada, Lithuania and the EU’s diplomatic service subsequently agreeing to do so, the Guardian understands.

The conference, #Disinfo2026, taking place on Wednesday and Thursday, is the annual meetup of Europe’s counter-disinformation community and has drawn hundreds of researchers, journalists, technologists and policymakers to a hotel in Vilnius, Lithuania. It is run by an independent Brussels non-profit, EU Disinfo Lab.

Days before the conference, the logos of its main supporters – the Lithuanian ministry of foreign affairs, the European External Action Service (EEAS) and Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry – were wiped off its website.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/07/trump-eu-disinformation-conference

15 posted on 10/09/2026 7:41:10 AM PDT by tlozo (“Russia war-Either money today or blood tomorrow," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk)
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To: lowbridge

This is an interesting turn of events.

It’s as if the USA got a guest worker visa in Russia and made Russian disinformation workers train us before getting laid off.

It used to be Russia, Russia, Russia.

Now it’s America, America, America.


16 posted on 10/09/2026 8:14:37 AM PDT by packagingguy
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To: lowbridge
Americans speaking freely is indeed a threat to their power.

It's long past time to give up our 20th century sentimentality about "the free world" and recognize we have no friends among the ruling classes of Europe.

We should have ditched NATO in the 1990s, but it's not too late.

17 posted on 10/09/2026 8:24:39 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along.)
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To: lowbridge

This is the same crappola that got Carney to sabotage the trade talks at the last minute — a 5% tax on US companies that publish info that he does not agree with.

Canada tried to censor YOUR speech on platforms like Xitter if your speech criticized Canada.


18 posted on 10/09/2026 8:31:16 AM PDT by bobbo666
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To: lowbridge

Time to resurrect Radio Free Europe!


19 posted on 10/09/2026 8:54:00 AM PDT by Savage Beast (When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the people are ready, the hero appears.)
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To: Brian Griffin
The attack on the Trump administration by EU DisinfoLab appears to be part of a larger EU effort to censor social media platforms in general and Elon Musk’s X in particular.

Totalitarians hate countries that are free - we give their tortured citizens hope. That's a crime in their eyes. Hating us as they do is just the start of their trip down the totalitarian path.

20 posted on 10/09/2026 10:42:45 AM PDT by GOPJ (GOP Registration Gains : Pennsylvania +7 North Carolina +8 Nevada +5 Arizona +4)
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