From deepfakes to bots: The AI arms race in Russian disinformation against Europe An analysis of a Euractiv article

The Euractiv news portal has published an article dedicated to the issue of the spread of Russian disinformation in Europe and measures to neutralise it. Caliber.Az offers its audience an analysis of the piece.

The Euractiv article highlights a critical and evolving challenge for European democracies: the Kremlin-backed Operation Overload, an aggressive and highly sophisticated disinformation campaign that has become Europe’s most sustained assault on the fact-checking community since June 2024. This campaign illustrates the growing dangers posed by AI-driven disinformation and the urgent need for stronger regulatory and technological countermeasures.

Operation Overload: A New Kind of Disinformation Blitz

Unlike traditional disinformation efforts that relied heavily on static falsehoods spread through conventional social media or media outlets, Operation Overload represents a dynamic, multi-vector campaign powered by artificial intelligence. The use of AI enables rapid generation of narrative variants—fake articles, deepfake videos, AI-generated images, and audio forgeries—that adapt in real time to evade detection. This capability essentially turns combating false information into a “whack-a-mole” game, overwhelming journalists and fact-checkers with a volume and speed they cannot match.

The report underlines how the campaign mimics military tactics—flooding targets with fake emails, flooding social media with crypto-themed bots, and exploiting “kernels of truth” to make falsehoods more credible. This approach allows disinformation to embed itself in local contexts by tailoring its four main pillars (anti-Ukrainian vitriol, election scares, identity smears, and incitement to violence) to specific national flashpoints in France, Poland, Moldova, and beyond.

Challenges in Detection and Regulation

A major takeaway is the critical lag between disinformation creation and response. The article points out that over 70% of flagged content remains online for months, and platforms fail to consistently enforce rules against reactivated accounts or paid-for authentication abuse. The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to enforce platform accountability, risks being ineffective without stringent enforcement, transparency requirements, and public audits. Without these, the DSA may become a “window dressing” that does little to stem state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.

Furthermore, the article exposes how high-profile Kremlin-aligned amplifier accounts gain algorithmic priority on social platforms like Twitter/X, lending Operation Overload an undue sense of credibility and reach. While direct state links remain opaque, synchronized behaviors and amplification patterns point to a coordinated, well-resourced campaign that goes far beyond grassroots trolling.

Proposed Multi-Pronged Defence Strategy

The article’s call for a four-pillar defense is both timely and pragmatic:

1. Real-time, multi-platform threat sharing — Creating encrypted dashboards to instantly share new threats can help contain spread before false narratives take hold.

2. Scalable AI-detection investment — Platforms and fact-checkers need automated tools that can scan vast content streams and flag AI-generated fakes at scale.

3. Stronger enforcement of the DSA — Public sanctions, mandated rapid takedowns, and transparency reports are essential to compel platform compliance.

4. Narrative literacy campaigns — Educating the public to recognize the mechanics of disinformation (e.g., kernels of truth, artificially produced bulk content) empowers citizens as active defenders against manipulation.

Broader Implications

The article warns that Kremlin-driven disinformation is not only a short-term threat but a systemic danger to democratic discourse. The Sunlight Project’s finding of over three million AI-forged articles annually signals a tsunami of falsehoods contaminating not just social media but also the data pools that train AI systems, thereby perpetuating misinformation within the digital ecosystem itself.

This feedback loop means the consequences extend far beyond current election cycles or geopolitical flashpoints. Disinformation is becoming embedded in the very fabric of digital communication, posing an existential challenge to truth, trust, and democratic governance.

Conclusion

The Euractiv article underscores the urgency for coordinated, technologically sophisticated, and politically backed responses to Operation Overload. It is a clarion call for European capitals and platforms to recognize that combating state-sponsored AI-driven disinformation requires not just reactive fact-checking but proactive, systemic defenses. The integrity of Europe’s democratic information space depends on it.

By Khagan Isayev