In European Parliament plenary sessions this past week, several European nations voiced concerns that Russian and ISIS propaganda were influencing the spread of radicalism across their countries and called for a task force to help address these “hybrid” campaigns. The Finland, United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden and the Baltic countries have supported ideas to create a “centre of excellence” located in Helsinki that would start to address the disinformation issue being used to radicalize citizens of the EU. These countries see this propaganda as a Russian technique for controlling the outcomes of elections. Germany in particular has raised concerns about Russia tampering with election results, mirroring concerns in the U.S. that Russian hackers could have influenced election results in states with electronic polling.

In an age where social media can help spread fake news and propaganda and where foreign hackers pose a threat to the credibility of election results, it seems right that the European Union would set aside time and resources to try and address this problem. As countries like Russia and groups like ISIS continue to wage an “information war” against the EU or U.S., more vigilance will be necessary to ensure the democratic process is not being interfered with.