Our democracies are built on trust, access to reliable information, and mutual understanding. Coordinated disinformation campaigns, foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), and the rapid spread of AI-generated content are undermining these very foundations and opening avenues for malicious actors to attack democratic structures.
“Digital Defenders: Influencers for Digital Democracy” is a new two-year project, generously supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, that directly addresses these challenges. The project is initiated and executed by Aspen Germany, with the support of Aspen Kyiv, Aspen Romania, and Aspen Central Europe.
The program will convene two cohorts of influencers and content creators from Central- and Eastern Europe, Germany, and the United States to discuss trends in the information landscapes, exchange experiences, and explore possible solutions. Through a series of online workshops, study trips, and collaborative formats, participants will engage deeply with the forces reshaping the digital information environments and the role they themselves can play in defending it.
The first project year will feature study trips to Berlin and Bucharest. Participants will engage in an interactive role-play, simulating EU crisis management in response to a coordinated foreign information manipulation campaign targeting democratic institutions and public trust across Europe. A collective study on hybrid threats will further anchor the project in academic debate.
The second project year will feature study trips to Berlin and Budapest. In this year, the participants will develop a fictional EU regulation on the role and responsibilities of social media influencers in the digital information space.
In both project years, side events are planned at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) to embed the project in the broader security policy discussions taking place across Europe. Furthermore, selected project participants will have the opportunity to participate in Aspen Germany leadership seminars.
Building on Aspen Institute Germany’s previous projects – #InfluencersAgainstDisinfo (2024–2026) and Disinformation and the Role of Social Media Influencers in Times of Crisis, Conflicts, and Wars (2023) – Digital Defenders expands the geographic reach and deepens the transatlantic dimension of the conversation, bringing together motivated digital voices to strengthen democratic resilience where it is most challenged: online.
