A Primer on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference
In today's hyper-connected world, information moves faster than ever before, across borders, platforms, and languages. Within this vast digital information ecosystem, people in Canada have become increasingly reliant on social media and other digital platforms for news, commentary, and connection. Yet this shift has made it difficult to confirm the authenticity of the content we consume or uncover the possible hidden motives of its creators.
Foreign threat actors exploit this lack of transparency in the information ecosystem by carrying out coordinated information campaigns targeting Canada and other countries. These attacks are known as foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), and they are a threat to Canada's national security and sovereignty.
FIMI is not a distant threat. It distorts the information we consume daily. For public servants in particular, it can impact every aspect of their work: how they communicate, the advice they provide, the decisions they take, and how they engage with people in Canada.
Increasing your awareness and understanding of FIMI and its intentionally harmful impacts allows you to become more resilient to it in your daily work.
What is FIMI?
The Government of Canada defines FIMI as "intentional efforts by foreign governments, or those acting on their behalf, to manipulate information to confuse, divide, or mislead the public, distort policy discussion and erode confidence in institutions."Note1 FIMI activities are typically well funded and often exist in a "grey zone" of being malicious without necessarily breaking any laws. They present significant risks to the sovereignty and security of targeted states and populations.
You may already be familiar with terms like "misinformation" or "disinformation," but these only consider the accuracy of an individual piece of information and potential intent to deceive. FIMI is a more sophisticated framework that includes:
- tactics and patterns of behaviour that foreign threat actors use to create inauthentic content or amplify manipulated information
- various types and scopes of information manipulation
- strategic goals behind these coordinated attacks
This shift towards understanding the threat actors responsible for producing and distributing harmful inauthentic content, as well as their tactics and objectives, is crucial. It allows experts to focus on patterns instead of chasing after an endless flow of individual pieces of manipulated information.
Who is behind FIMI?
When discussing FIMI, the term "foreign threat actor" is often used to describe various entities—governments, organizations, groups or individuals—that engage in malicious information activities targeting another country.
Why do foreign threat actors engage in FIMI?
Foreign threat actors use FIMI to advance their own geopolitical and strategic interests by systematically distorting the information landscape. They attempt to achieve these goals by:
- exerting political influence by skewing public policy and swaying voter decisions towards candidates or movements that align with their foreign agendas
- fostering social polarization by identifying and inflaming domestic tensions, which weakens social cohesion and makes a society easier to destabilize from within
- eroding public trust in public institutions and democratic processes such as elections to limit the target state's ability to govern effectively
How does FIMI spread in society?
Threat actors deploy a wide range of tactics to advance their geopolitical and strategic goals. They include:
-
coordinated networks
(creating fake social media accounts and proxy websites and using hacked social media accounts to systematically spread manipulated and misleading content)
-
synthetic content
(digitally altering videos, images, or audio—including AI-generated deepfakes—to misrepresent individuals or institutions)
-
intimidation
(targeting and harassing journalists, community groups and individuals to silence dissent and shape public opinion)
Threat actors at the state level rarely act alone. They often coordinate their attacks with non-state proxies, such as aligned media outlets or marketing firms that benefit financially from manipulation and interference. These partnerships increase the reach of state-driven information campaigns, help conceal government involvement, and make inauthentic narratives appear more legitimate.
The other layer of the FIMI structure involves digital influencers and online communities. When influential individuals with existing audiences engage with FIMI, they help harmful state-backed narratives reach more people more quickly. By sharing, liking and amplifying each other's posts across platforms and channels, they create a chorus of repetition that can lead people to accept manufactured content as genuine.
How big is the problem of FIMI?
The covert and multilayered nature of FIMI makes reporting and attribution challenging. However, new analytical tools and standardized approaches for tracking incidents and patterns of behaviour are enabling governments to better understand the players involved, and the extent of their malicious attacks.
A 2025 reportNote2 from the European External Action Service (the European Union's diplomatic service) provides some indication of the scale of the problem at a global level. According to their evidence, between November 2023 and November 2024 there were:
- 505 global incidents of FIMI activities
- 90 countries and 322 organizations targeted
- 38,000 unique channels on 25 different platforms were used, such as Facebook, X, TikTok, and YouTube
In Canada, the threat is just as real. A recent public inquiry and updates from the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force during the 2025 federal election show that foreign threat actors are increasingly targeting our political system, using AI to spread digitally manipulated information and confuse voters. While these attacks have not affected the outcome of Canadian elections, they are quietly damaging the public's trust in the information and institutions provided by public servants.
Why should public servants care about FIMI?
You may be wondering what a complex geopolitical issue like FIMI has to do with your day-to-day work. FIMI can disrupt the workings of government at all levels and public servants have a role to play.
We can think about the responsibilities of public servants related to FIMI in the following ways:
Protecting Canada's information integrity is a shared responsibility
At its core, FIMI is an attempt by foreign threat actors to manipulate Canada's domestic information environment without the knowledge or consent of information consumers. People in Canada have a right to know where the information they consume comes from so they can make independent, informed decisions.
When foreign states secretly distort public discourse in Canada, they aren't just spreading "fake news," they are interfering with its ability to function as an informed society. Public servants are stewards of Canada's system and have a responsibility to help protect the transparency and integrity of the information ecosystem that people in Canada rely on. Having the ability to recognize FIMI is part of that responsibility.
Understanding Canada's vulnerabilities is the first step towards FIMI resilience
Some of Canada's greatest strengths are what make it a target of FIMI.
- Global influence: Canada's role in key international forums such as the G7 and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization gives foreign states an incentive to undermine its credibility. By making people in Canada or its leaders appear divided or incompetent, they try to weaken these global alliances.
- Multicultural society: Canada's multicultural diversity is one of its great strengths, but foreign threat actors view it as a vulnerability to exploit. Using digital tools, threat actors reach across Canada's borders to intimidate and silence critics in diaspora communities, activists and journalists. This "transnational repression" injects foreign censorship directly into the lives of people in Canada.
- Economic prosperity: FIMI is often used to support economic interference. Through smear campaigns that discredit Canadian innovation and regulatory standards or policy goals, foreign threat actors attempt to tilt markets in their favour.
For public servants, recognizing these points of vulnerability builds resilience; it helps reveal the strategic intent behind FIMI attacks rather than viewing them as random, isolated incidents.
FIMI attacks the "currency" of the public service—public trust
At its core, FIMI is a direct attack on the relationship between people in Canada and their government. Public trust is the "currency" that allows public servants to be effective. Without it, even the most essential government policies and programs can fail because they are met with suspicion rather than engagement.
- Eroding the "expert" voice: FIMI often targets technical and scientific expertise within the public service. By spreading doubt about the data or the people behind it, threat actors make it harder for public servants to provide people in Canada with the facts they need to make important decisions.
- Creating social gridlock: By magnifying social divisions and turning people in Canada against each other, FIMI generates artificial controversy. This can make it difficult for the government to reach consensus, slowing down the policy-making process and making it harder to address the issues that matter most to people in Canada.
- Targeting the messenger: When FIMI campaigns lead the public to believe that institutions are corrupt or incompetent, the work of every public servant is undermined. Protecting Canada's information ecosystem is a foundational part of protecting the "bridge of trust" between the government and the public.
Building resilience to FIMI
By reading this article and building your knowledge about FIMI, you've already taken an important step towards strengthening public service resilience. The more public servants understand why foreign threat actors engage in these activities, the tactics they use, and the impacts they can have, the less susceptible they are to manipulation or to unintentionally amplifying inauthentic narratives that diminish public trust. Continuing to invest in our knowledge and awareness of this topic is an important part of maintaining an informed and resilient public service.
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