For the first time, the European Union may impose sanctions against the Russian Federation and China for spreading fake information aimed to improve the image of these countries in the light of the spread of COVID-19. Radio Svoboda has got the access to graft documents, which confirm such intentions of the European Union.
In particular, the European Democracy Action Plan prepared by the European Commission stated that disinformation can be considered a weapon. Furthermore, it emphasizes that the Russian Federation and China have already been involved previously in spreading the COVID-19 fakes and disinformation in the European Union and around the world in order to "improve their own image".
The document also reads that the East StratCom task force has discovered more than 500 examples of Russian disinformation about COVID-19 this year , as well as 10,000 examples of Kremlin fakes since the start of monitoring in 2015. The Action Plan on European Democracy emphasizes that the European Union must make more systematic use of the full range of its instruments in the fight against foreign interference.
"The possible ways to do this range from the public reveal of commonly used methods (to make them unusable) to impose a new package of sanctions after the repeated violations," the document said. In particular, the European Commission proposes to strengthen EU regulations and rules regarding the online platforms that can possibly be used bu third countries for spreading fakes.