By Nayara Güércio
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A manipulated image.
A fake expert.
A cloned news website.
A viral post designed to provoke outrage before anyone has time to fact-check it.
This is what Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, or FIMI, looks like in practice.
For many people, disinformation still feels like something abstract. A buzzword. A problem that exists somewhere online, floating between conspiracy theories and social media chaos. But the reality is far more organised, strategic, and political.
FIMI refers to coordinated attempts, often linked to foreign actors or their proxies, to manipulate public debate, deepen social divisions, influence political decisions, and weaken trust in democratic institutions. Sometimes these campaigns are obvious. Sometimes they are subtle enough to blend into everyday online life.
Well…That is what makes them effective.
One of the biggest misconceptions about information manipulation is the idea that it works by convincing everyone of one single lie. In reality, many campaigns do not try to persuade everyone. They try to exhaust people. To create confusion. To flood information spaces so thoroughly that audiences begin to doubt everything.
And increasingly, these campaigns are not isolated incidents. They are long-term operations.
Over the course of the ATHENA project, we analysed dozens of FIMI cases linked to different geopolitical contexts and actors. Some involved fabricated stories about war and elections. Others relied on manipulated visuals, fake local news outlets, coordinated bot activity, or emotionally charged narratives designed to inflame existing tensions.
What became clear very quickly is that FIMI rarely invents divisions from scratch. Instead, it exploits fears, frustrations, political fractures, and historical tensions that already exist within societies.
It also adapts constantly.
Social media platforms have accelerated the speed and scale of information manipulation. Generative AI, synthetic media, and deepfakes are now making deceptive content faster to produce, cheaper to distribute, and increasingly difficult to detect. The result is an information environment where manipulation can move across borders within minutes.
At the same time, attribution remains incredibly difficult. Many campaigns operate through proxies, unofficial networks, influencers, anonymous accounts, or private companies that create distance between state actors and the manipulation itself.
But… despite how complex the problem has become, one thing is still more relevant than ever: public awareness.
Understanding how FIMI operates is one of the strongest forms of defence we have. Media literacy, transparency, fact-checking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and critical engagement with digital content all matter. Not because they eliminate manipulation completely, but (mostly) because they make societies more resilient to it.
Information has always shaped politics, culture(s), knowledge, and public life. What has changed is the scale, speed, and sophistication with which it can now be weaponised.
And that means understanding information manipulation is no longer just the work of cybersecurity experts or policymakers. It is something that affects all of us navigating digital spaces every single day.
Every.
Single.
Day.