What if viral cultural moments were not just entertainment, but strategic entry points for influence?
High-visibility events, from major entertainment events to viral online controversies, are increasingly used within the information environment as opportunities for influence and narrative shaping.
This webinar explores how Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) actors exploit these moments to inject geopolitical narratives, and influence public discourse. From coordinated engagement around events, such as Eurovision, to the amplification of polarising online trends, these dynamics reveal a shared playbook combining narrative seeding, meme-driven framing, and cross-platform amplification.
Join Rachele Gilman (Principal) and Zoé Fourel (Senior Analyst) from Cardigan Collective as they unpack how these strategies operate in practice, how they intersect with domestic dynamics, and how to distinguish between organic and orchestrated trends.
Speaker: Rachele Gilman, Principal Analyst and Founder of Cardigan Collective
Rachele is the founder of Cardigan Collective and a researcher specialising in foreign information manipulation and interference. With a background in intelligence and counterterrorism, she examines how cultural spaces, from reality television to celebrity controversies, function as vectors for narrative manipulation and hybrid threats. Her work sits at the intersection of pop culture, information integrity, and security, arguing that the accessibility of these spaces is precisely what makes them exploitable.
Speaker: Zoé Fourel, Senior Analyst at Cardigan Collective
Zoé is a Senior Intelligence and Policy Analyst with expertise spanning threat intelligence, digital policy, and technology. She analyses complex online threat ecosystems, coordinates intelligence sharing across international networks, and works with cross-functional teams to develop solutions against influence operations and online harms. At Cardigan Collective, she brings that operational and analytical depth to bear on the cultural dimensions of information manipulation.
Moderator: Maria Giovanna Sessa, Research Manager, EU DisinfoLab
Maria Giovanna Sessa is the Research Manager at EU DisinfoLab. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and has previously worked for research foundations, think tanks, and as a university teaching assistant. She authored blog posts, book chapters, articles, and an e-book, as her research interests focus on the use of disinformation in political communication, gender-based attacks, and international crises, including FIMI. Lately, she has been working around DSA enforcement, linking research and policy implementation.
The opinions expressed are those of the speakers/authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of EU DisinfoLab. This webinar does not represent an endorsement by EU DisinfoLab of any organisation.