SECURE - When security spills over

Brief project description

This project aims to analyse the growing involvement of LGBTI+ civil society in efforts to regulate disinformation and social media. By comparing the cases of Brazil and Poland, two countries where disinformation campaigns targeting LGBTI+ communities have disrupted recent political processes, it seeks to examine the key challenges and long-term transformations experienced by LGBTI+ movements in the digital age, conceptualising technology not merely as a tool but as an object of political contestation. Delving into the current geopolitical tensions, where disinformation is increasingly framed as a security or warfare issue, the project maps LGBTI+ civil society engagement in the anti-disinformation field to address the following questions: 

• How have LGBTI+ civil society actors navigated the anti-disinformation field?  With whom do they form alliances and coalitions? 

• How do they position themselves in relation to technology companies, once seen as allies in promoting diversity, equality, and inclusion? 

• What new practices and discourses are being incorporated into LGBTI+ activism through involvement in the anti-disinformation field, and how do these changes affect their relationship with states and opponents?

Theoretical Background

Designed to address gaps in digital politics, political sociology, digital sociology, gender studies, security studies, and media studies, the project reflects an ongoing paradigm shift in how the social sciences have approached new information technologies over the past few decades. Once celebrated for their supposed democratising potential, the Internet and social media are now at the centre of democratic debate, increasingly associated with attempts to manipulate public discourse, influence elections, undermine institutional credibility, and erode human rights. This scenario stems, to a significant extent, from the ways in which digital platforms have expanded the reach of disinformation — understood here as the deliberate dissemination of false information with direct effects on politics and public opinion. As the political field becomes increasingly mediated by digital media and the political process more deeply permeated by disinformation, a range of actors have mobilised to advocate for the regulation of digital technologies — including social media platforms and artificial intelligence — and to draw attention to the challenges they pose to democracy and the rule of law. SECURE seeks to emphasise the role of civil society in shaping digital politics and how, in turn, it is transformed by it, with particular focus on the case of LGBTI+ movements.

Case and Approach

In recent years, LGBTI+ civil society organisations have faced a new dilemma. After decades of relying on digital platform services to connect with communities, run awareness campaigns, and raise funds, they became frequent targets of the spread of online false narratives. As a result, LGBTI+ organisations in various regions have shifted their efforts to advocating for information integrity, marking a critical turning point in their relationship with social media platforms. In doing so, they have highlighted the links between platform capitalism, authoritarian politics, anti-gender campaigns, LGBTI+phobia, armed conflict, and geopolitical interests. Within this complex arena, activists encounter numerous challenges, including framing new issues, forming alliances, engaging with both established and emerging opponents, and countering ongoing lobbying efforts by technology companies and state actors. Using a comparative approach and a combination of qualitative and mixed methodologies, SECURE examines this evolving field of contention by analysing how security practices and discourses from the anti-disinformation field have been incorporated into LGBTI+ movements.

The specific objectives are:

1. to trace the growing engagement of LGBTI+ civil society in countering disinformation in Poland and Brazil, mapping institutional and civil society initiatives, actors and their goals, strategies and relationships across different levels (e.g. nationally, regionally and internationally).
2. to investigate the spillover process of security discourses and practices from one field (anti-disinformation) to another (LGBTI+ rights).
3. to examine whether the involvement of LGBTI+ civil society in countering disinformation is contributing to a shift from “equality” to “protection” in the patterns of “LGBTI+ governance”, which refers to the ways in which LGBTI+ people and ideas are integrated into the state.

Research outputs will include a theoretical framework for analysing security spill-over processes across different levels, academic articles, and policy briefings co-created with LGBTI+ civil society organisations on innovative approaches to counter disinformation.

Duration: September 2025 to August 2027

The project is funded by Horizon Europe’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), managed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) of the European Commission (Grant agreement ID: 101209056).

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