Imagine that a Russian military unit secretly operated what appeared to be an independent fact-checking organisation during wartime.
Imagine that Chinese-linked actors used fake online personas to influence political debates in Europe.
Imagine that Tehran hired Western political consultants to shape public opinion abroad through unidentified online “think tanks”.
Brussels would have little difficulty finding the right label: what the European External Action Service calls Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI).
Yet when similar allegations emerge from investigations involving Israeli actors, the language changes.
