Siim Kumpas's public lecture „Beyond disinformation: from problematic content to manipulative behaviour“

On 22 April, from 14:15 to 15:45, Siim Kumpas, a Head of the Policy, Strategy and Global Priority Issues Team within the Strategic Communication Division of the European External Action Service, will give a public lecture „Beyond disinformation: from problematic content to manipulative behaviour”, in Room 206 at Lossi 36.

Here is what Siim Kumpas says about the lecture.

In a nutshell, I will talk about how we have changed the way we think about the problem at the European External Action Service and more broadly. How we have moved past the fairly narrow concept of „disinformation“ to something we call „foreign information manipulation and interference“. This means that we have shifted our focus from problematic content to manipulative behaviour. Let's call it a behaviour-first approach, if you will. Based on this, we've built a new and much more objective way of monitoring and analysing the information environment. Also, and more importantly, this gives us a much wider array of tools to use (e.g. strategic communication, but also capacity building, awareness raising, media and information literacy legislative instruments, foreign policy instrument) in responding to malign actors engaged in information manipulation activities. 

Siim Kumpas serves as the Head of the Policy, Strategy and Global Priority Issues Team within the Strategic Communication Division of the European External Action Service, the European Union's diplomatic service. Before joining the EEAS, Kumpas worked at the Government Office of Estonia, designing and implementing Estonia’s approach to building resilience to foreign information manipulation. He is also a guest lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, delivering a course on Strategic Communication and Psychological Defence. Kumpas holds a MA degree in Communication Management from the University of Tartu.

Join via Zoom

Kindly be advised that broadcast of the lecture in Zoom will be recorded exclusively for educational purposes. Identities of the online participants will be safeguarded, and the recording will not be made publicly accessible.