Navigating the Information Disorder: European Youth in the Age of Digital Disinformation

How are young Europeans navigating an age of digital disinformation and what must change to support them?

Our FLAGSHIP peer-reviewed publication, Navigating the Information Disorder: European Youth in the Age of Digital Disinformation, draws on in-depth research, YOUTH TESTIMONY, and POLICY ANALYSIS to explore how disinformation shapes civic life across Europe, and what meaningful, YOUTH-CENTRED RESPONSES look like. Read the report below in full screen or download PDF here.

In a time of geopolitical instability, polarisation, and algorithmic overload, the ability to navigate information critically is not just a skill — it is a CIVIC IMPERATIVE. Navigating the Information Disorder is Europinion’s flagship policy report on how young Europeans EXPERIENCE, RESPOND TO, and RESIST digital disinformation in their everyday lives.

Based on FIELD ENGAGEMENT and INFORMED, LIVED EXPERIENCE across multiple EU member states, the report explores:

• How young people perceive disinformation in online and offline spaces

• The impact of disinformation on democratic trust, identity, and political engagement

• The limitations of current top-down media literacy approaches

• Youth-led strategies for building civic resilience and digital agency

Our central finding is clear: to counter the spread and influence of disinformation, young people must be treated not as passive recipients of information, but as INFORMED, EMPOWERED, and CRITICAL actors. Media literacy must be participatory, contextual, and rooted in lived experience.

This report offers concrete recommendations for policymakers, educators, and civil society actors seeking to co-create scalable, INCLUSIVE RESPONSES to the information disorder. It forms part of Europinion’s broader commitment to CHAMPIONING YOUTH AGENCY in safeguarding European democratic spaces.

AUTHORS: Éléonore Daxhelet, Adélie Aubin, Samuel Crooks, Maxime Zigrand, Will Kingston-Cox

PEER REVIEWERS: Dr Jan Grzymski (Jagiellonian University), Nachiket Midha and Ho Ting (Bosco) Hung (OCPSG; University of Oxford)