Democracies sometimes use foreign meddling as an ‘alibi’: think tank

Report warns against overemphasising external threats, urges focus on internal failures and citizen trust

Foreign interference in elections is a real concern but sometimes used as an “alibi” by democracies to divert attention from domestic issues, the head of a democracy think-tank said Monday.

According to a new report by Stockholm-based International IDEA, disinformation and manipulation of social media algorithms to influence results were among the major threats to democracies during election campaigns.

The threat is “exacerbated by the explicit willingness of domestic, foreign and non-state actors to engage in such activities”, the report said, highlighting states such as China, Russia and Iran.

Among 54 elections covered in 2024, 80 per cent experienced “deliberate campaigns of disinformation trying to shape the electoral result”, IDEA’s Secretary General Kevin Casas-Zamora said.