How narratives harden, travel, and resurface

Relations between the Trump administration and European institutions and NGOs have hit a cold spell with the ban on entry into the country for four civil society leaders (Imran Ahmed, Chief Executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of Hateaid, Clare Melford, CEO of The Global Disinformation Index, as well as former EU Commissioner and French government minister Thierry Breton), motivated by the alleged infringement of American freedom of expression when 1/ European regulatory efforts obviously do not apply to the United States and cannot constitute acts of interference, and 2/ these efforts are precisely aimed at guaranteeing freedom of expression by protecting the digital public space so that opinions can clash in a constructive rather than harmful way. Opsci.ai has signed this call to support the fight for democracy, published yesterday, alongside Alliance4Europe and more than 40 other European organizations.

From the field — recent publications & collaborations

New investigations and fact-checks from Re:Baltica and partners cover three distinct but connected angles:

- Euractiv.ro/Digital Bridge Association: a deep dive into how diaspora-blame narratives get activated in electoral contexts, reframing responsibility and legitimacy across borders.

- Orizzonti Politici: two pieces mapping how political storylines travel and get weaponised — a case study on disinformation around the war in Ukraine ; and a look at Trump-era shifts in how AI is being used and debated in politics.

- Les Surligneurs: a cluster of fact-checks unpacking high-velocity legal and geopolitical claims — including the limits of what the CJEU ruling actually implies on same-sex marriage recognition in cross-border contexts, and debunks targeting viral claims about Zelensky, namely property purchase rumours & “multiple passports” allegations.

- Ekspress / Delfi (Estonia): a reported piece on systematic pro-Kremlin propaganda dynamics circulating through coordinated networks and formats, and how they’re pushed into public attention.

- European Journalism Observatory (DE): This short piece introduces PROMPT’s new, free COPE MOOC module on AI and disinformation, framed around the rising need for media literacy and offering a practical course for journalism students and practitioners to understand how AI can both amplify and help detect misleading narratives. → Access PROMPT’s MOOC!

When Wikipedia becomes a battleground

Wikipedia often feels like stable ground. But around elections, even “settled” knowledge can quietly shift.

In recent work on Moldova, PROMPT’s Wikipedia Sensitivity Barometer showed how identity-laden pages become pressure points: subtle historical revisionism, selective sourcing, and coordinated editing by look-alike accounts can slowly bend what looks like consensus. These dynamics rarely take the form of blunt vandalism. Instead, they rely on patterned behaviour that mimics organic participation — and they tend to intensify precisely when political stakes rise.

A public version of the Wikipedia Sensitivity Barometer is now available for Moldova and Romania. It offers a way to spot potentially vulnerable pages, at the source of possible spill-overs into social feeds (and your GPT “friend”).

→ Explore the Barometer

Meet the Future of AI Conference: Support for the European Democracy Shield, Brussels December 2

On December 2nd, Dr Clément Benesse, head of AI research at opsci.ai, participated in the Annual meeting of the HORIZON Cluster on AI and disinformation. Convened in Brussels by the AI4TRUST project, under the patronage of DG CNECT, the conference brought together leading experts, policymakers, civil-society organisations, researchers and innovators to explore how AI technologies can strengthen Europe’s democratic resilience. The different sessions explored the challenges, but also hands-on tools, to support the European Democratic Shield.

Clément’s presentation focussed on the contribution of an approach combining narratology, persuasion & emotional micro-triggers, and coordination, to support the current research; as well as practical contributions the European Narrative Observatory can make to the future European Centre for Democratic Resilience.

→ See the full recording of the event

Opsci.ai joins the Counter Disinformation Network and RESONANT Stakeholder Board

To engage PROMPT further within the disinfo ecosystem, PROMPT has joined Alliance4Europe’s Counter Disinformation Network this month. It’s a door open to collaborate on FIMI, disinformation, social data monitoring, etc. Very importantly, this network is contributing to developing a new common grammar to investigate, but also to counter, disinformation campaigns.

Opsci.ai was delighted to participate in the CDN workshop, on December 8th, to contribute to the development of the Influence Operations Disruption Framework - a whole-of-society, actionable model focused on disruption, coordination, and mitigation. Opsci.ai has also joined RESONANT’s Stakeholder Board, bringing a narrative-first lens into wider European collaboration on coordinated disinformation detection and response.

Political Tech Review: hybrid interference in the Moldovan election

PROMPT took part in Partisan’s Political Tech Review on Hybrid interference in the Moldovan elections (11 December). During the session, Andra-Lucia Martinescupresented her analysis of Moldova’s 2025 parliamentary elections, developed as part of PROMPT’s Second Narrative Report, to show how hybrid interference unfolds across platforms, how electoral narratives are gradually recalibrated over time, and why moving beyond isolated incidents is essential to understanding pressure on democratic processes.

Over the past weeks, PROMPT’s tools were tested at:

- EJO Annual Meeting (21 November): focus on journalistic practices and emerging best-practice guidelines.

- Open webinar (28 November): MOOC dissemination + a first public demo of the tool.

- Beta-testing session (11 December): focus on the PROMPT Corpus Analyser.

If you haven’t tested the tool, join our beta-testing program! → You can sign up via the link at the bottom of PROMPT’s website.

Where PROMPT has been and will be…

You might have seen us at:

- Think Tank Renaissance Numérique, December 4, Paris (opsci.ai)

- France–Quebec roundtable on digital commons, December 11, Paris (opsci.ai + Wikimedia France)

- Digital Governance Research Colloquium, Hertie School of Governance, December 11 (opsci.ai) — You can watch the session here

And the team will be happy to meet you at:

- Médias en Seine, January 15, Paris (opsci.ai)

- Political Tech Summit, January 23-26, Berlin (opsci.ai)

→ See our full agenda