The Impact of Disinformation Campaigns about Migrants and Minority Groups in the EU (EXPO_IDA(2021)653641)

Commissioned by the INGE committee, Szakacs and Bognar's analysis examines how disinformation campaigns targeting migrants and ethnic and religious minorities function as instruments of social division and democratic destabilisation. The study documents Kremlin targeting of Jewish communities and the weaponisation of anti-migrant narratives, as well as the distinctive situation of Roma communities — who are simultaneously targets of domestic disinformation and largely absent from the counter-disinformation research agenda.

The study's framing is analytically important: it treats minority-targeting disinformation not as a secondary concern but as a primary vector for the kind of social fragmentation that weakens democratic resilience. For practitioners working on identity-based FIMI detection or building inclusive resilience programmes, this study provides the most comprehensive EU-level evidence base.