US pressured EU to withdraw sponsorship of disinformation conference

The European Union on Wednesday withdrew sponsorship of a disinformation oblige scheduled to be held in Lithuania that day, bringing up issues that the framing of some discussions didn’t equal with its incidence positions.

The conference, #Disinfo2026, is the tenant meetup of Europe’s counter-disinformation businessman and in most cases attracts masses of researchers, newshounds, technologists, and policymakers to a lodge in Vilnius, Lithuania.

An foster Brussels non-profit, EU Disinfo Lab, runs it.

The oblige, held in Vilnius on 7-8 October 2026, used to be publicly marketed since a minimum of April, and its enlarge has been comparable holder since 9 September, deduction ahead of the EU’s last-minute withdrawal.

The EU exhaust affairs systematic, the European External Action Service (EEAS), together with Canada and Lithuania, withdrew utilise at ceiling realize. As a market, sponsors’ trademarks on flyers and placards on the oblige have been all of a sudden coated over with sustain strips.

“We 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,” EU spokesperson Christian Wigand informed newshounds in Brussels.

However, a Guardian honest attributed the support to port from US State Department officers over a contest framing the US as a exhaust unit ground.

That contest is named “USA as a FIMI threat: adapt, acknowledge, push back.” FIMI refers to “foreign information manipulation and interference.”

The sustain, bringing up EU assets and the US State Department, mentioned it had contacted migration governments about their utilise for the conference.

State Department officers centered at the contest, which incorporated 3 American audio system, one of whom used to be a former CIA wire. They sought to talk about how Europe’s disinformation businessman may just hedge resilience with out Washington.

The undersecretary of large for sense international relations, Sarah Rogers, is claimed to be in the back of the US motion.

READ ALSO: Key controversies from Trump’s UN speech

The Guardian reported that the conference seems to be the primary to entertain the methodology that the US is usually a disinformation actor in Europe.

It additionally quoted inside State Department paperwork appearing officers thanking Lithuania for taking America’s issues critically.

The sustain reported that the US used to be “grateful” to Lithuania, whilst Lithuania, the US, and Canada precedent the framing “reprehensible and surprising.”

Meanwhile, Lithuania, whilst pronouncing its support to withdraw from the enlarge, mentioned, “several parts of the conference programme differ from the official position of the Government.”

Canada additionally mentioned, “It carefully assesses participation in, and sponsorship of, external events on a case-by-case basis,” and that once watching “changes to the framing of several panel discussions, it has decided to revise its participation in those sessions at the EU DisinfoLab 2026 conference.”