Borrell: Disinformation is dangerous

Borrell: Disinformation is dangerous

He added that disinformation weakens the social fabric.

''The constant stream of lies is meant to plant the notion that all information is unreliable and not trustworthy. To disseminate the feeling that nothing is true, and everything is false. To make us suspicious about everything. That there is no such thing as the truth, and that there is nothing that can be trusted. This is a very uncomfortable society when you cannot trust anyone, anything", Borrell said on press conference in Brussels.

He stated that it is dangerous, adding that disinformation weakens the social fabric, poisons democracies,

''Only information makes democracy possible. Democracy is a system that works on the basis of information, good information. That is why, dictatorships, the first thing they do is to close the newspapers, install censure and block information, only allowing the ones that they consider good for them", Borrell said.

He emphasized that liberal democracies cannot live without "reliable information and without trust in democratic processes, such as elections."

''If we want to defend democracy, if we want to defend ourselves from manipulation, we have to protect ourselves considering that as a security threat and go to this battle with the same capacity as the ones who are attacking us", said EU High Representative. He added that this is why he presented the Strategic Compass, which aims to strengthen the security and defense policy of the European Union.

''That is why, when we presented the Strategic Compass, which planned to strengthen the European Union’s security and defense policy, we made decisive actions against information manipulation as one of its pillars. We have to defend ourselves against the threats that are challenging us, and one of these threats is manipulation of the information", Borrell concluded.