On 7 and 8 October 2026, Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), represented by its co-founder and executive director, Bassam al-Ahmad, participated in the European edition of Disinfo2026, held in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
The conference, organized by EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based nonprofit organization, focused on strengthening collective responses to disinformation, exploring the latest accountability and verification mechanisms, and discussing the impact of artificial intelligence and the enforcement of digital legislation. It brought together more than 650 professionals and experts, including researchers and journalists.
According to The Guardian, some organizations and governments withdrew their official sponsorship in the days leading up to the event after the U.S. State Department contacted several governments about their support. This occurred amid sessions examining the United States as a disinformation actor. The entities that withdrew their sponsorship said they did so because the framing of certain discussions differed from their official positions. The newspaper added that other entities continued to support or participate in the conference.
One of the conference sessions was titled “The US as an FIMI Threat.” FIMI stands for Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference. The European Union defines FIMI as “a mostly non-illegal pattern of behaviour that threatens or has the potential to negatively impact values, procedures and political processes. Such activity is manipulative in character, conducted in an intentional and coordinated manner. Actors of such activity can be state or non-state actors, including their proxies inside and outside of their own territory.” In a statement cited by The Guardian, the U.S. State Department said the term generally describes influence operations conducted by adversarial actors, adding that countries’ withdrawal from the conference should come as no surprise after the event characterized the United States as an “FIMI threat.”
STJ’s participation in the conference is part of its efforts to strengthen networking and exchange expertise with international stakeholders, both within and beyond the European Union, who work on accountability, countering disinformation, and digital rights, thereby contributing to a stronger collective response to these challenges.