The Dutch-language version of the pro-Kremlin “news site” Pravda mentions Forum for Democracy (FvD) by far the most often of all the parties participating in the 29 October 2025 parliamentary elections of the Netherlands. In more than 3,000 Pravda articles focusing on Dutch domestic news, over a third of the 303 pieces about political parties…
To protect our children and our democracies, we have to stop fighting the wrong battles. The best defence isn’t being better parents or being better voters. It’s governing the platforms designed to exploit and divide us for profit. by Suzanne Nam, Advisor to Defend Democracy STOP BLAMING OURSELVES Nearly every parent I know struggles to…
The battle for Europe is also being fought online. Russia wants to weaken EU cohesion, NATO coordination and support for Ukraine; the Netherlands’ parliamentary elections are an obvious target. On social media, this manifests itself in polarising narratives and coordinated amplification: identical slogans, “response sprints” and suspicious followers who tip the balance of visibility. Last…
“We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to [American and Chinese] social networks, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies.” From a speech by President Macron on the occasion of German Unity Day, 3 October 2025 “Finally, it is up to us Europeans to take…
Since the end of 2024, YouTube has been offering a new feature that automatically translates and dubs videos using artificial intelligence. With a single click, this innovation makes videos accessible to millions of English-language viewers. But in election season, the technology also raises questions: who decides whether party politics should suddenly be presented in another…
Defend Democracy celebrates International Democracy Day by launching a new initiative: a tech watchdog called WebWatch. WebWatch‘s first project is about digital and information integrity around the Netherlands’ general elections of 29 October 2025. Will there be improper influence on public debate in the weeks before, during and after the election? Will we see online…
Digital engineering creates not just far-right voters; it manufactures far-right candidates. Does the EU have the courage to take and enforce adequate structural measures to defend democracy against the weaponisation of digital platforms? How many dominoes can the EU afford to fall? by Martin Gak Defend Democracy is publishing a new analysis in the wake…
Today, 23 April 2025, the European Commission fined Meta and Apple for breaching EU law. After months of investigation and fruitless dialogue, the tech firms now have 60 days to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Defend Democracy comments: “It is great that the European Union is leading the governance of digital technologies and…
Today, Defend Democracy co-organised the first in a series of ‘HandsOFF Our Democracy‘ protests. Our founder and executive director gave the following speech. A few months before I launched Defend Democracy*, just 50 meters from here we organised a peaceful protest in solidarity with the American ‘March for Truth’. That was in June 2017. We…
All around the globe, democracy is under threat and authoritarianism on the rise. The Trump/Musk regime openly states that the terms for global trade and exchange shall be dictated by the United States. They are aiming a big bazooka at the European standards of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights. In other words:…
