EU, Canada, and Lithuania withdraw from disinformation conference following US pressure
The US State Department has asked several European embassies and the EU delegation to convey Washington's concerns and to assess whether the governments planning to participate in the conference view the US as a FIMI actor.
08.10.2026 Riga weather: Rīga 17°C ECB rates: EUR/USD 1.1177 EUR/GBP 0.8465 Contacts The US State Department has asked several European embassies and the EU delegation to convey Washington's concerns and to assess whether the governments planning to participate in the conference view the US as a FIMI actor.
Published: 8 October 2026 at 15:04 Photo: Jon Sailer/Unsplash Advertisements The administration of US President Donald Trump has pressured diplomatic officials from the European Union, Canada, and Lithuania to withdraw from an international conference on disinformation, Politico reports.
This move followed the organizers' announcement of a panel discussion regarding threats posed by information published by the US administration and its officials. The #Disinfo2026 conference includes sessions characterizing the US as an agent of "foreign information manipulation and interference" (FIMI)—a classification that, according to US State Department communications, has alarmed the Trump administration.
The conference is taking place in Vilnius on the 7th and 8th of October. The US State Department has asked several European embassies and the EU delegation to convey Washington's concerns and to assess whether the governments planning to participate in the conference view the US as a FIMI actor.
Advertisements FIMI is an EU term denoting activities that seek to distort information available to the public—such as the online dissemination of disinformation. It is typically used to describe the influence of foreign powers, such as Russia. According to the US State Department's position, the conference lumped the US together with foreign adversaries such as China and Russia—an inappropriate comparison that obscures the scale of Russian and Chinese interference in democratic systems.
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The demand to withdraw participation appears to be an unusual attempt by the Trump administration to pressure allies into silencing criticism from European citizens and Americans living abroad. Three US citizens participated in one of the panels. Recipients of the US State Department's request included US embassies in France, Norway, Romania, and Poland.
The embassies were asked to verbally convey to the host countries that the U.S. was displeased with the panels regarding U.S. disinformation. One panel—titled "USA as a FIMI threat: acknowledge, adapt, push back"—featured two American researchers and a former Central Intelligence Agency employee, examining how the US has become a source of disinformation threatening Europe.
Another panel involved legal experts assessing US government travel bans imposed on European officials. A US official familiar with the matter said Advertisements the State Department had urged some countries—though not all—to reconsider their participation in the conference. Officials from Romania, Norway, and Poland remain on the conference agenda.
The foreign ministries of these countries did not respond to requests for comment. US officials also contacted the French Foreign Ministry, but the French have not withdrawn from the conference. The Trump administration has regularly sought to pressure the EU to align with Washington’s standards on free speech—standards that some in Europe view as overly broad.
These US efforts have included public criticism, behind-the-scenes lobbying against EU laws, and visa restrictions for Europeans. Domestically, however, the US administration has disbanded government bodies that combated disinformation. The Republican Party has also opposed certain EU laws requiring social media platforms to take a more active role in fighting online disinformation, as well as laws mandating age verification for access to potentially harmful content.
Some have characterized these measures as censorship. Advertisements On the 5th of October, Canada and Lithuania asked the organizers to remove their ministries' logos from conference materials, and the EU made a similar request on the 6th of October. Adam Fivenson, one of the panelists who provoked Trump’s ire, described the US State Department’s reaction to the conference as peculiar; the event involved researchers exercising their First Amendment right to free speech to discuss how to counter the lies and manipulation that threaten democracy and harm families and children.
When asked to comment on the situation, the State Department indicated that it could not discuss the nuances of diplomatic communications, though it should come as no surprise that countries decline to participate in conferences upon learning that the US has been labeled FIMI. Topics: United States disinformation European Union Lithuania Canada Read also Advertisements
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