Reading time: 5 minutes

 

PRESS RELEASE

Brussels, Belgium, May 20th, 2025

KEY MESSAGES

  • EU spending €650 MILLION on projects exploring so-called “hate speech” and “disinformation” – largely through the Horizon “research” programme
  • EU spending 31% more on such projects the money allocated for transnational cancer research projects
  • This EU funding is a self-conscious attempt to create a moral panic around “disinformation” and “hate speech” with the ambition that EU institutions, under the guise of the Digital Services Act (DSA), will be called on to further regulate online speech.

A groundbreaking report released today by the think tank MCC Brussels, titled "Manufacturing Misinformation: the EU-funded propaganda war against free speech" by Dr. Norman Lewis, reveals a covert campaign by the European Commission to regulate public debate in Europe under the guise of combating ‘hate speech’ and ‘disinformation’. The report uncovers how the Commission has funded hundreds of unaccountable non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and universities to carry out 349 projects related to countering ‘hate speech’ and ‘disinformation’ to the tune of almost €650 million.

Read the full report here.

This massive allocation of taxpayers’ money has been consciously used to fund an Orwellian disinformation complex to dictate and control the language of public debate. The report argues that this is not a benign act of responsible government but a systematic assault on free speech in Europe. The EU is engaged in a silent war to regulate language, aiming for a top-down, authoritarian, curated consensus, where expression is free only when it speaks the language of compliance established by the Commission.

These projects, often framed in ambiguous and euphemistic terms referred to as "NEUspeak", are designed to construct an ideological infrastructure for controlling political narratives and shaping public opinion. This is a self-conscious attempt to create a moral panic around “disinformation” and “hate speech” with the ambition that EU institutions, under the guise of the Digital Services Act (DSA), will be called on to further regulate online speech. By funding activist-researchers, the EU produces the very narrative which is increasingly key to its legitimacy: that only EU institutions can protect European democracy from misinformation and hate. 

This is described as a "Ministry for Narrative Control" dedicated to shaping European thought and delegitimise alternative narratives, like the rising tide of populist opposition. 

The report highlights several examples of these projects:

  • FAST LISA ("Fighting hAte Speech Through a Legal, ICT and Sociolinguistic Approach"): Presented as tackling online hate speech, this project is critiqued as a system of speech monitoring and behavioural influence. It involves automated surveillance using AI and aims to train young people to become "agents" or "speech police" for the EU narrative.
  • VIGILANT ("Vital IntelliGence to Investigate ILlegAl DisiNformaTion"): This project aims to develop a platform for police to fight online hate crimes. The report describes it as building a sophisticated AI system for automating the surveillance and classification of online content, blurring the line between harmful speech and political dissent. It is seen as the infrastructure for real-time ideological policing deployed by the police.
  • VERA.AI ("VERification Assisted by Artificial Intelligence"): This project seeks to build AI tools to detect fake content for media professionals. The report argues it aims to centralise an algorithmically determined narrative detection system where "truth" will be determined algorithmically based on training data sets defined by unaccountable entities. The "fact-checker-in-the-loop" approach is described as the truth being algorithmically determined but not open to debate.

The report charges that this vast expenditure, 31% higher than the money allocated for transnational cancer research projects, reveals that the EU is dependent on inventing the problem it then must solve. What is presented as neutral "research" is often the ritual confirmation of preordained political assumptions, with academia and NGOs financially incentivised to legitimise the Commission's narrative.

This report is not merely an exposé of financial misuse but a democratic intervention. It argues that when language is narrowed, softened, obfuscated, or stripped of meaning, so is the possibility of resistance and the development of alternatives. The Commission, by defining what may be said and how it must be framed, does not protect democracy but undermines it.

MCC Brussels warns that this crusade fatally undermines free speech and democracy in the name of democracy and free expression.

“This is not benign,” said Dr. Norman Lewis, author of the report.

“These 349 projects involve hundreds of organisations in a recursive, self-serving loop. It’s a corrupt and corrupting influence that diminishes civil society and academic integrity. There is no pursuit of truth - only alignment with a bureaucratic narrative designed to stifle opposition.”

MCC Brussels concludes that this campaign - under the banner of democracy - poses a serious threat to democratic values, by narrowing public discourse and suppressing dissent in favour of algorithmic governance and elite consensus.

The full report can be found here.

 

About the Author:

Dr. Norman Lewis, Visiting Research Fellow at MCC Brussels, is a globally recognised expert on innovation and technology. With over 20 years of experience, he has led disruptive technology initiatives in global corporations and start-ups, served as Director of Technology Research at Orange UK, and held senior roles at PwC and the MIT Communications Futures Programme.