EU against disinformation : Understanding a modern anti-disinformation campaign

In March 2015, the European Union decided to respond to the ongoing disinformation campaigns by setting up the East Stratcom Task Force. This thesis applies theories of communication logic, disinformation-defence and EU’s normativity to develop an analytical framework that can theoretically and empirically enhance our understanding of EU’s campaign. A content analysis was used to analyse the material and to categorize different key concepts that derives from the aforementioned theoretical fields. The finding generated by the analysis of the disinformation reviews show that the Task Force uses both media and political logic in its communication. The results also indicate clear traits of a confronting disinformation-defence strategy. Furthermore it is possible to detect a trend among some of the responses that had similarities to another category within the field of disinformation- defence called “ignoring”. Interestingly the reviews do not regularly reference the normative values of the EU. However, this does not prove that the reviews or the Task Force that writes them do not share the normative values. Although the normative values of the EU is not discussed or referenced in the vast majority of the reviews, on several occasions they do defend the EU on the basis of its normative values. This illustrates a certain level of neutrality of the position of the Task Force with regards to the self-identity of the EU. Despite only being active for two years, the East Stratcom Taskforce seems to have found its place among the EU’s arsenal of foreign policy tools