Eastern EU fight against disinformation will be uneven

Significance

The Pirates and their coalition partners have fallen to third place, having previously made a shock breakthrough to surpassg Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s ANO party. Pirates leader Ivan Bartos’s claim has highlighted the prevalence of disinformation, affecting politics and security everywhere.

Impacts

• Disinformation can affect politics, business, organisations and whole societies.
• There is clear evidence of the Russian origin of some disinformation, if not categorical evidence of Moscow’s official involvement.
• Hungary is an exemplar of governments using disinformation to limit press freedom and civil rights.