{"id":220,"date":"2026-10-12T12:17:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/us-pressured-eu-to-withdraw-sponsorship-of-disinformation-conference\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T12:17:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:17:51","slug":"us-pressured-eu-to-withdraw-sponsorship-of-disinformation-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/us-pressured-eu-to-withdraw-sponsorship-of-disinformation-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"US pressured EU to withdraw sponsorship of disinformation conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union<\/a><\/strong> on Wednesday withdrew sponsorship of a disinformation event scheduled to be held in Lithuania that day, citing concerns that the framing of some discussions did not align with its official positions.<\/p>\n

The conference, #Disinfo2026, is the annual meetup of Europe\u2019s counter-disinformation community and usually draws hundreds of researchers, journalists, technologists, and policymakers to a hotel in Vilnius, Lithuania.<\/p>\n

An independent Brussels non-profit, EU Disinfo Lab, runs it.<\/p>\n

The event, held in Vilnius on 7-8 October 2026, was publicly advertised since at least April, and its programme has been available online since 9 September, long before the EU\u2019s last-minute withdrawal.<\/p>\n

The EU foreign affairs division, the European External Action Service (EEAS), along with Canada and Lithuania, withdrew support at short notice. As a result, sponsors\u2019 logos on flyers and placards at the event were hastily covered over with paper strips.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not comfortable with the framing of some of the discussions at the event. The organisers chose to frame some of the discussions in a way which does not align with the official positions held by the EU,\u201d EU spokesperson Christian Wigand told reporters in Brussels.<\/p>\n

\n\"PT<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Dangote<\/a><\/div>\n

However, a Guardian report attributed the decision to pressure from US State Department officials over a panel framing the US as a foreign information threat.<\/p>\n

That panel is called \u201cUSA as a FIMI threat: adapt, acknowledge, push back.\u201d FIMI refers to \u201cforeign information manipulation and interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper, citing EU sources and the US State Department, said it had contacted multiple governments about their support for the conference.<\/p>\n

State Department officials focused on the panel, which included three American speakers, one of whom was a former CIA officer. They sought to discuss how Europe\u2019s disinformation community could rebuild resilience without Washington.<\/p>\n

The undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, Sarah Rogers, is said to be behind the US action.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:\u00a0Key controversies from Trump\u2019s UN speech<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Guardian reported that the conference appears to be the first to entertain the idea that the US could be a disinformation actor in Europe.<\/p>\n

It also quoted internal State Department documents showing officials thanking Lithuania for taking America\u2019s concerns seriously.<\/p>\n

The paper reported that the US was \u201cgrateful\u201d to Lithuania, while Lithuania, the US, and Canada found the framing \u201creprehensible and surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lithuania, while announcing its decision to withdraw from the programme, said, \u201cseveral parts of the conference programme differ from the official position of the Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada also said, \u201cIt carefully assesses participation in, and sponsorship of, external events on a case-by-case basis,\u201d and that after observing \u201cchanges to the framing of several panel discussions, it has decided to revise its participation in those sessions at the EU DisinfoLab 2026 conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

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