EU, Canada Rescind Disinformation Summit Support at US Request
The Facts
- Europe's annual counter-disinformation gathering, #Disinfo2026, opened Wednesday in Vilnius, Lithuania, with white stickers covering the logos of Canada, Lithuania and the European External Action Service on conference banners and printed materials following U.S. intervention.
- It has been reported that the U.S. State Department asked counterparts in Lithuania, Canada and France to drop support for the Oct. 7-8 event, organized by Brussels nonprofit EU DisinfoLab, according to U.S. officials and correspondence reviewed by Reuters.
- Meanwhile, a State Department cable directed U.S. embassies in France, Norway, Romania and Poland to raise Washington's concerns verbally, saying the program drew a "false equivalence" between the United States and adversaries such as Russia and China.
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The Spin
Anti-Trump narrative
Dropping support for a disinformation summit the moment Washington objects is exactly the cowardice that lets malign foreign influence succeed. Democracies that won't defend truth in their own information space have already handed over the keys. Europe must wake up to the fact that its relationship with America has fundamentally altered under Trump, and defend itself from all forms of adversarial behavior.
Pro-Trump narrative
Slapping the "disinformation" label on speech has become the handiest excuse for governments to censor opinions they dislike, with European bureaucrats going as far as seeking to police free speech on U.S. soil. The representation of the U.S. as a "FIMI" threat is unbecoming of allies who seek to benefit from American fraternity, with nations right to pull out from supporting a summit that makes such aggressive diplomatic accusations.
