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Out of all the problems online why go after Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI)?
Before we get into that let's get into the problem the term FIMI is meant to solve. People have been lying since the dawn of time, people have been lying on the internet since it was first created. However, we’ve only focused intensely on internet lies since 2016.
Why?
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2016 was a big year. The Russian interference in the US election made it clear that misinformation posed a challenge. The field quickly exploded with new terms and new findings. Researchers eagerly wanted to cover all internet harms from hate speech to sexual exploitation to online manipulation. People are still working on all of these issues but there emerged a need to separate these issues from one another.
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Additionally once research started on online manipulation there quickly arose complex issues. What should the government and big tech’s role be in deciding what content should be accessible online? Different countries had different solutions but for most countries, issues of potentially stifling free speech were pressing.
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Introducing FIMI
The term FIMI was developed in the EU because it could focus on a very specific problem: online manipulation for foreign actors, while avoiding stifling the free speech of domestic users.
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With a more clearly defined scope actions directed at the problem could be more effective. Many monitoring groups popped up to try to track FIMI. The EU created legislation like the DSA and the Code of Practice on Disinformation to allow for measures to be taken against FIMI. A wide range of interventions have popped up trying to protect people from FIMI such as media literacy or flagging or FIMI content online.
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However, FIMI is an evolving term, and it is not the perfect solution towards all the problems we see online. For example, when actors are being deceptive it can be difficult to tell whether they are foreign or domestic. This is why there is still active debate on the term and where to apply it.
