cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11057800
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Moscow and Beijing have deepened coordination on artificial intelligence governance, digital standards, and media policy. This partnership now extends to influence operations: … Russian-linked actors [are] using the Chinese AI model DeepSeek to conduct influence campaigns, while … Chinese AI models embed content controls that reproduce Kremlin narratives on Ukraine. The European Commission’s 2025 report on foreign information manipulation concluded that Russian and Chinese actors have “fully implemented AI tools” for such operations.
The Russian-Chinese propaganda offensive skirts around European regulation. Since X is designated as a very large online platform under the EU’s Digital Services Act, it must take measures to identify and block Storm-1516’s propaganda. European regulators fined the platform €120 million in December 2025 for breaching DSA transparency obligations; a month later, the Commission extended its investigation into X’s recommender systems.
But the same narratives migrate within hours to the Telegram messaging service, which is not designated as a very large online platform, has not signed the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation, and offers no system for reporting disinformation. Ukraine’s Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law found that sanctioned Russian propaganda channels on Telegram are blocked only partially — some not at all — while duplicate channels carrying identical content operate freely under altered names.
Another gap runs across the Atlantic Ocean. Europe’s DSA applies to platforms operating in the EU, but US-hosted services face no equivalent obligations. The current US administration has widened the gap by rolling back AI safety commitments and framing European digital regulation as protectionist. A Ukraine fatigue narrative manufactured in Moscow can move through US-based channels that owe nothing to the DSA and resurface in European media looking like organic public opinion.
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