Whack-a-mole warfare: Europe's battle against AI-fuelled Kremlin lies
Since June 2024, the Kremlin-driven Operation Overload has become Europe's most sustained disinformation blitz against the fact-checking community. According to a newly released report by CheckFirst and Reset Tech, Operation Overload's AI-driven narrative variants are popping up faster than fact-checkers can knock them down, turning Europe's information space into a perpetual game of disinformation whack-a-mole.
If Brussels doesn't harness the full force of the Digital Services Act now, demanding real-time platform accountability and enabling cross-border threat-sharing, the next wave of state-sponsored fakes could reshape our public discourse before we even spot the first lie. The question is, can Brussels and the platforms it seeks to regulate keep pace with a campaign that adapts as quickly as the neural networks powering it?
Since September 2024, the Russian-backed operation (also known as Matryoshka) has more than doubled its email attacks, overwhelming media and fact-checking communities with an average of 2.6 fabricated pitches per day – more than doubling since the campaign began. In the same way that waves of drones or missiles can overwhelm air defences, this operation seeks to do the same to journalists and fact-checkers. Fake emails are only the tip of the iceberg for this coordinated propaganda machine. According to the Overload report this includes 11,000 crypto-themed 'reposter' bots on Twitter/X and thousands of deepfake videos.
AI-driven content creation has become the operation's backbone. Deepfake audio, AI-generated images and 'magazine cover' forgeries now churn out at scale, each twisted around a 'kernel of truth'. To evade detection they include isolated reports, such as Ukrainian call-centre irregularities, or decontextualise verifiable details of events.
This perpetual 'whack-a-mole' exhausts journalistic resources and fragments the fact-checking ecosystem. For example, CheckFirst logged 180 debunks, yet fewer than half were framed within the larger Operation Overload context.
But all these numbers still undersell the operation's enormity. In February 2025, the American Sunlight Project found that Kremlin-aligned networks were already producing over three million AI-forged articles per year – a tsunami of disinformation now poisoning AIs like ChatGPT and Gemini, eating away at our digital discourse from within.
For example, across France, Poland and Moldova, Overload adapted its four pillars of anti-Ukrainian vitriol, election scares, identity smears and calls to violence to local flashpoints (e.g. Macron, historical grievances, Sandu's legitimacy). Such targeted campaigns require equally tailored counter-messaging since one-size-fits-all rebuttals leave gaps for the next hostile narrative.
Most revealing is who amplifies these lies. High-profile Kremlin-aligned 'amplifier' accounts on Twitter/X whose synchronized behaviour lends the campaign mainstream reach, grants Operation Overload an aura of mainstream credibility. While the direct link between these influencers and Russian state agencies remains opaque, their synchronised behaviour and consistent prioritisation by platform algorithms indicate an operation that transcends mere grassroots trolling.
Under the EU's Digital Services Act , Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) must swiftly mitigate systemic risks such as election interference and incitement to violence. Yet over 70% of flagged content lingered online for months, and platforms missed reactivated accounts and paid-for authentication abuse.
If the EU allows this to persist by eschewing public audits, fines or mandated transparency, the DSA risks becoming little more than window dressing, ill-suited to protect against state-sponsored disinformation. A four-pillar defence Europe can't treat each Overload hit as an oddity. Instead, it must tackle AI-enabled disinformation with four coordinated efforts:
Real-time, multi-platform threat sharing: Set up a shared dashboard with encrypted feeds so that the moment one fact-checking group or platform spots a new fake image, bot network or edited video, it automatically alerts everyone else so they can all block it before it spreads.
Scalable AI-detection investment: Invest in AI systems that can automatically scan millions of videos, images and posts every hour, flagging deepfakes and bulk-generated disinformation so platforms and fact-checkers can remove them before they go viral.
Give the DSA teeth: Publicly name and sanction non-compliant VLOPs, demand rapid takedowns under Articles 34–35, and require quarterly transparency reports on coordinated inauthentic behaviour.
Narrative literacy campaigns: Launch public-awareness campaigns that go beyond debunking individual lies to teaching people how to spot when a misleading story is built around a 'kernel of truth' or artificially bulk-produced, so everyone can challenge and report fakes, not just fact-checkers.'
Operation Overload is an AI-fuelled, multi-vector threat crafted by Kremlin-aligned actors.
The Overload 2 report maps this danger. It's now up to national capitals to forge a robust cognitive defence for Europe's democracy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euractiv
9 minutes ago
- Euractiv
The threat is coordinated, our response is not
Chris Kremidas-Courtney is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre, associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and author of 'The Rest of Your Life: Five Stories of Your Future.' Russia and China are actively engaging in a new kind of conflict, one that targets infrastructure, information, and influence rather than just territory. Yet most democracies remain caught in outdated frameworks, still approaching security through the Cold War lens of deterrence, and tidy distinctions between war and peace. This battle is for influence and control across every key domain: information, infrastructure, supply chains, cyberspace, and even the human mind. And right now, the West is losing not because our adversaries are stronger, but because we're uncoordinated, reactive, and politically fragile. While Russia's military is bogged down in Ukraine, Moscow has quietly expanded its use of cognitive warfare, now powered by AI and producing a flood of false content. By manipulating narratives, distorting facts, and fueling polarisation, Russia seeks to weaken Western resolve before a shot is even fired. China's strategy is more patient, but no less potent. Through its dominance of global supply chains, Beijing has gained immense economic leverage . Chinese actors have also been caught prepositioning inside Western power grids, probing vulnerabilities to exploit later. We're not only trading with China, we're also entrusting it with the keys to our critical infrastructure. Meanwhile, China and Russia are deepening their military-technical ties, including joint submarine development, heavy-lift helicopters, and the construction of a missile attack warning system. These developments show a deepening of China and Russia's defence and security partnership . Economic sanctions are increasingly ineffective, largely because democracies can't stomach the political costs. As one recent analysis put it, 'The West can't survive the sanctions it needs to deter China.' When gas prices spike or critical imports dry up, public support crumbles and so does our deterrence. China continues supplying Russia with dual-use items like semiconductors and ball bearings, helping Moscow replace components lost to sanctions. This exchange not only fuels Russia's war against Ukraine, it actively undermines the effectiveness of the West's economic levers of power . Beijing and Moscow are playing the long game. They're sanction-proofing their economies while weaponising our openness and indecision. They're also betting on us being too slow, divided, or distracted to respond. Unfortunately, they're often right. Take the current situation in Libya. Italy and Greece have been sounding the alarm about Turkey and Russian-backed destabilisation in North Africa, along with weaponised migration flows and Russian navy repositioning in the Mediterranean. Yet their calls for help have been ignored by their allies. In Europe, we tend to think of Poland and the Baltic regions as frontline states. But Italy, Greece, and others on NATO's southern flank are also frontline states of hybrid warfare, weaponised migration, and maritime competition. When the security concerns of frontline states are not taken seriously, everyone becomes more vulnerable. We can also look at the EU's China strategy. While Brussels may have labelled Beijing a 'systemic rival,' most member states still treat China's expertise as an afterthought. Unlike the US, which created a 'China House' for cross-agency coordination, Europe has no comparable structure – leaving it flat-footed when decisions need to be made fast. By contrast, China and Russia conduct annual strategic security consultations and coordinate via institutionalised five-year military cooperation plans. Though not a formal alliance, their sustained coordination outpaces the ad hoc responses of Western democracies . What should we do? First, we need to stop pretending these are disconnected problems. They are expressions of the same campaign to reshape the global order in favour of authoritarian power. Europe and its allies must build permanent strategic capacities to respond and shape outcomes before crises escalate. Second, we must strengthen our 'asymmetric resilience'. That means diversifying supply chains, investing in local production, and scrubbing our infrastructure for vulnerabilities. Finally, we must prepare for hybrid threats the way we once prepared for nuclear ones: with scenario planning, joint exercises, and rapid-response mechanisms that include both civil and military sectors. From power grids to migration routes, the frontline of conflict has changed. Our defence posture must change with it. There is good news: When democracies act together, they are formidable. We've outmatched authoritarian powers before and not through force alone. We did so by staying flexible, principled, and united. But coordination begins with clarity. We must recognise that these are not isolated incidents but interconnected elements of a deliberate strategy to reshape the global balance of power. Effective response requires more than awareness. It demands institutional reform, strategic foresight, and the political will to act before the next crisis breaks.
Euractiv
11 hours ago
- Euractiv
Dutch authorities to meet social media giants ahead of October elections
The Netherlands' competition regulator will meet 12 major online platforms — including TikTok, Facebook and X — on 15 September to discuss disinformation in the run-up to the 29 October elections. The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), which enforces the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) in the Netherlands and is mandated to monitor elections under the DSA, said the roundtable will also involve the European Commission, other national regulators, and NGOs. The Dutch snap vote was called after the government collapsed in June over migration policies, less than a year after taking office. Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) under the DSA "must implement transparent and diligent policies regarding the content on their platforms and take effective measures against illegal content," said ACM director Manon Leijten in a statement on Wednesday. Under the Commission's DSA guidelines on electoral processes, national digital services coordinators such as the ACM can hold pre-election roundtables with major online platforms to evaluate their strategies for mitigating systemic risks. Prior to this announcement, the Dutch authorities had sent a letter to the platforms on 21 July, outlining their DSA obligations and requesting relevant contacts within their Trust and Safety policy teams. The letter also asked the platforms to complete a questionnaire on how they planned to safeguard public debate before the elections. The ACM said the September meeting would provide a "clear picture" of how the platforms planned to prevent DSA violations, such as illegal hate speech, foreign interference, and disinformation. After Romania's December 2024 presidential election was annulled by the country's top courts, the European Commission opened a DSA investigation into TikTok. The Commission also expanded an ongoing probe into X before Germany's February 2025 vote. Similar roundtables were organised ahead of those elections. However, neither investigation has yet been closed. (de)
Euractiv
12 hours ago
- Euractiv
Ukraine willing to discuss territorial issues with Russia, German chancellor says
BERLIN – Kyiv is willing to discuss territorial issues with Russia, amid new 'hope for movement" towards peace in Ukraine, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday. The comments came after a digital summit of European leaders with Donald Trump, during which they discussed the US president's controversial meeting with Vladimir Putin on Russia's war in Ukraine, set to take place in Alaska on Friday. Merz said that Europeans used the call with Trump on Wednesday to underline that "fundamental European and Ukrainian security interests must be maintained in Alaska.' 'There is hope for movement. There is hope for peace in Ukraine,' Merz said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin. Merz outlined the joint European position on the talks, consisting of five points, including – notably – that Kyiv 'is prepared to negotiate on territorial issues." A legal recognition of Russian occupations was "not up for discussion,' he added, however. 'The principle that border must not be changed by force must be upheld," he stressed. The American president had raised eyebrows in Europe when he suggested that Moscow and Kyiv could discuss swapping Ukrainian-held territory against Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, sparking fears that America and Russia could try and engineer a ceasefire deal in Ukraine's absence. Trump later said, however, that it was not up to him to make a deal and that he would try to get territory back for Ukraine. Zelenskyy previously said that he was not prepared to concede territory to Russia. In Berlin, he stressed that his overall position 'hasn't changed' and that any deal would need to be compliant with Ukraine's constitution. Aligned 'to very large extent' Other joint priorities listed by Merz included that Ukraine would need a seat at the table in future peace negotiations, that a ceasefire would need to precede peace talks, and that 'solid' security guarantees would need to be negotiated. Merz also called for a joint transatlantic approach, that would entail jointly "increasing the pressure... if there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska." Trump shared this position "to a very large extent,' Merz said. Other European leaders shared the optimistic outlook after the call, that included the heads of state and government of Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, as well as the presidents of the European Commission and European Council, and NATO chief Mark Rutte. French President Emmanuel Macron noted that Trump had agreed during the call that Ukraine must be involved in territorial talks in any ceasefire deal with Russia. Meanwhile, Rutte wrote on X that European and America were 'united in pushing to end to this terrible war." 'The ball is now in Putin's court,' he added. *Magnus Lund Nielsen contributed reporting. (mm)
