Every year, the people who monitor the information battlefield—researchers, journalists, think-tank analysts, academics, and government officials—gather to compare notes about the latest Russian operation, the newest Chinese influence campaign, the troubling algorithm designed to tear a society apart. This week, they gathered in Vilnius for the annual EU DisinfoLab conference, an event that has become a crucial meeting place for the counter-disinformation community. The scene was familiar: conference badges, crowded coffee breaks, panels full of acronyms like FIMI, and posters listing sponsors. But something unusual had happened before the doors opened. The Government of Canada had withdrawn its sponsorship. Lithuania,…

In early October 2026, the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee—the body dedicated to social, humanitarian, and cultural issues—became the stage for a familiar but troubling ritual. China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Sun Lei, delivered a sharp rebuke to representatives from the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Lithuania, who had used their statements to accuse China of human rights abuses. Sun expressed China’s strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition, describing the accusations as baseless and maliciously designed to smear China’s record. But beyond the diplomatic clash, the moment raised a deeper question: what does it…