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On 26–27 February 2026, the Journées Infox sur Seine brought together over 100 European professionals working on disinformation and information manipulation: researchers, journalists, government officials, civil-society representatives, and private-sector practitioners, at Université Paris Panthéon-Assas. Now in its fourth edition, the event has become one of the key gathering points for the Francophone community working on information integrity. This year’s programme reflected a sector that is maturing fast and grappling with the distance between technological capability and operational effectiveness.
The timing was significant. Just two days before the event, the European Commission formally launched the European Centre for Democratic Resilience, the flagship initiative of the European Democracy Shield, signaling an institutional acceleration in the EU’s approach to foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). Several sessions at the conference echoed this momentum, with presentations ranging from AI-generated synthetic media detection to coordinated bot farm analysis and Wikipedia manipulation.
A clear thread emerged across the programme: European actors are building increasingly sophisticated tools for detection, classification, and early warning. Yet presenters were equally candid about persistent limitations — systems still heavily reliant on English-language datasets, architectures that struggle with temporal granularity, and response frameworks not yet fully adapted to the diversity of European information environments.
It was within this gap that Dr Marc-André Boisvert, an analyst in Cronos Europa’s Information Integrity team, presented findings from ongoing work monitoring, detecting, and analysing disinformation and Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) in West Africa. Speaking in the session on “Disinformation: Terrains, Actors, Conflicts” Boisvert demonstrated how information manipulation campaigns in the region — particularly those linked to expanding geopolitical influence — exploit local trust networks, rapid-fire publishing rhythms, and narrative saturation techniques such as gish galloping to overwhelm institutional response capacities.
The presentation illustrated a principle central to Cronos Europa’s Information Integrity service line: that effective response requires the integration of purpose-built technology, deep thematic and regional expertise, and processes tailored to the specific operational realities of each institutional countering foreign information manipulation threats.
Rather than positioning technology and human analysis as competing priorities, the Cronos Europa model treats them as mutually reinforcing. AI-augmented tools accelerate detection and surface patterns across languages and platforms. Specialist analysts provide the contextual judgment needed to assess what those patterns mean: who is behind them, why they resonate, and what response they require. Tailored processes ensure that intelligence reaches decision-makers in formats and timelines that match how institutions actually operate.
As the EU’s information integrity architecture continues to evolve from the European Democracy Shield to expanded mandates around FIMI detection and response, events like the Journées Infox sur Seine serve as vital spaces for practitioners to align on methods, share operational experience, and identify the gaps that still need closing.
Cronos Europa’s participation reflects our commitment to contributing to this community, and to building the integrated capabilities that the next phase of European information integrity will demand.
