The Long Arms of Authoritarian States: Suppressing Independent Voices within and beyond their Borders.

This proposal is developed for a call under the Horizon Europe’s Cluster on Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society, within the research destination of Democracy and Governance, and the specific call HORIZON-CL2-2023-DEMOCRACY-01-02: Developing a better understanding of information suppression by state authorities as an example of foreign information manipulation and interference. By analysing the ways in which the four regimes of Russia, China, Ethiopia and Rwanda suppress or eradicate independent voices and information, we will conceptualise, identify and help address information suppression as foreign information manipulation and intervention by authoritarian states - domestically, transnationally and within EU states. China and Russia are selected as two major powers highly active in managing information as a part of their foreign policy, affecting both EU states and their diasporas in the EU. Ethiopia and Rwanda, though less influential on the global stage than the former two, are some of the most engaged African states in transnational repression. Having substantial diaspora populations in Europe, their reach should be analysed and the implications of their information suppression should be understood.