Fractured Reality: How Democracy Can Win the Global Struggle Over the Information Space

The JRC's 2026 report on the global struggle for the information space is the most ambitious framing of the disinformation challenge produced by an EU institution to date. Moving beyond incident-level FIMI analysis, the report situates democratic vulnerability to disinformation within a structural analysis of the attention economy — the algorithmic and commercial logic through which platforms systematically favour engaging, emotionally resonant, and often false or misleading content over accurate but less compelling information. The concept of the 'fantasy-industrial complex' — the ecosystem of content producers, platforms, and political actors that profit from information disorder — is analytically sharp.

Published as a contribution to the European Democracy Shield initiative, the report makes the case that democratic resilience in the information space requires structural intervention — not just content moderation and resilience-building, but reshaping the economic incentives that make disinformation profitable. For practitioners and policymakers thinking about the long-term architecture of democratic information environments, this report sets the terms of the debate at the EU level for the years ahead.