MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The European Union is developing a system of legislative control over information flows under the guise of combating disinformation, the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN) said in the second part of its research, made available to TASS.
According to the organization, by August 2025, the EU created a comprehensive model of digital control based on documents such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) overseeing the largest online platforms and search engines and the Chat Control 2 project, which provides for mandatory scanning of private messages on user devices. "It is formally aimed at protecting the rights and interests of citizens, protecting against disinformation, but in fact it strengthens the mechanisms that allow influencing the content and form of digital communication at the infrastructure level," the research reads.
The network points out that the Digital Services Act provides only accredited researchers with access to platform data, restricting independent analysis, while interpretation of information remains in the hands of a limited number of actors. In addition, most often, it’s corporations, national regulators and supranational bodies that act as a single mechanism of control.
"In this logic, the digital space is perceived not as an open platform for exchanging opinions, but as an infrastructure, each point of which is subject to verification, registration and, if necessary, restrictions," the research notes.
According to the GFCN, the mandatory scanning of private correspondence, the creation of centralized data storage, and the expansion of supranational agencies’ authority alter the very concept of privacy, gradually replacing democratic procedures with a regulated digital order.
Digital authoritarianism
Researchers warn that if the trend persists, the EU risks ending up as a model of digital authoritarianism, where control is built into every device and transaction. In their view, whether the digital space remains part of democracy or ultimately becomes a manageable system under the banners of security and progress, depends on the maturity of European institutions and the political will to set limits on interference.
Competition for control over information
The research emphasizes that the European digital agenda has already moved to the level of international relations, so every new regulation becomes the subject of negotiations and debates. According to the authors, in August 2025, the United States increased pressure on Brussels, saying that its new rules limited freedom of speech and the competitiveness of American technologies.
Tensions are also growing in the EU’s relations with the United Kingdom and Australia, where domestic initiatives to weaken encryption are being discussed. While these projects are formally aimed at protecting children, experts see them as part of a broader Western trend to establish control over encrypted communications.
That said, the authors conclude that the EU’s new digital regulations are becoming not only a tool of domestic policy but also an element of global competition for control over information flows. "In this configuration, the priority is increasingly shifting from the protection of human rights and privacy to strategic and technological interests determined by the balance of power in the international arena," the research concludes.