Abstract

Cyber disinformation is no longer merely a digital extension of fake news or traditional propaganda. It has become a complex systemic risk at the intersection of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, algorithmic systems, digital platforms and democratic security. The scale of this challenge has increased with global connectivity: in 2025, approximately 6 billion people, or 74% of the world's population, were online, compared with 5.8 billion in 2024 (International Telecommunication Union [ITU], 2025). At the same time, generative artificial intelligence has substantially reduced the cost and increased the scale of producing, personalising and disseminating synthetic text, images, audio and video. This article argues that contemporary cyber disinformation no longer targets only the accuracy of individual pieces of information; it increasingly targets the informational environment through which perception, trust and decision-making are constructed. This transformation requires moving beyond the traditional technical understanding of information security towards broader concepts of “information integrity” and “cognitive sovereignty”. Using analytical and comparative approaches, the study examines the regulatory experience of the European Union and international frameworks developed by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, the European External Action Service, the OECD, the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe, while also considering Morocco's National Cybersecurity Strategy. The study highlights that more than 500 Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference incidents were documented in 2024, involving at least 25 platforms and approximately 38,000 accounts, targeting 322 organisations across 90 countries (European External Action Service [EEAS], 2025). ENISA has also recognised information manipulation and interference as part of the contemporary cybersecurity threat landscape (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity [ENISA], 2024). The article concludes that effective regulation should not establish governmental control over “truth”. Rather, it should develop risk-based information governance focusing on coordinated manipulative behaviour, algorithmic transparency, content provenance, platform accountability, researcher access to data, media literacy and judicial safeguards. It further argues for progressively integrating information integrity into national cybersecurity frameworks.

Keywords

Cyber Disinformation; Cognitive Sovereignty; Cybersecurity; Information Integrity; Artificial Intelligence; Deepfakes; Digital Platforms; Democratic Security; Information Manipulation.