Information influence, meaning the systematic impact on society’s operational capacity, is not a new phenomenon. However, digitalization and social media have increased both the scale and the methods of influencing. The European Union has a significant role in restraining information influencers, but individual citizens also play a crucial part.
In SaferGlobe’s Digital and Democratic Europe project, we focused on information influence. In our communications related to the project, we broadly provided Finns with foundational knowledge about the relationship between democracy and digitalization. Our project enhanced citizens’ abilities to operate safely in digital environments, simultaneously increasing the resilience of the EU and Finland by highlighting digital tools and processes developed by the EU. The main themes of the project were eradicating hate speech and the development of regulation, as well as the EU’s actions to curb disinformation.
The project was carried out with the support of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ Europe Information service.