rights. By using hybrid threat activities, malign actors seek to deepen divisions in society, undermining social cohesion and trust among citizens and towards their democratic in­stitutions. Domestic threats to democracy But democracies are also under pressure from within. After a wave of democratisation in the late 20th century, since the great recession of 2007–2009 there has been a wave of democratic backsliding: a form of autocratisation, a pro­cess of regime change toward authoritarianism in which the exercise of political power becomes less restrained and more arbitrary and repressive. Worldwide, there are now more autocracies than democracies. 1 Another domestic challenge for democracy is radicalisa­tion, ranging from an individual’s process of radicalisation, to a group’s process of legitimising the use of violence, to the collective construction of a threatened ideal(“us” against“them”), where others are dehumanised by a pro­cess of scapegoating, leading to acts of violence. Closely related to radicalisation is the rise of the far right. In many countries, including in the European Union, politi­cal parties on the extreme right are gaining power. Trail­blazer Hungary was followed by Poland and the UK(when it was still an EU member). And now we can see this trend across Europe, even in larger Member States like Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Since the European elections of 2024, the shift to the(far) right can also be observed in the European Parliament. Technological threats to democracy As far back as 2021, a study 2 identified nine trends that were likely to pose digital threats to democracy in the near future: digitally impaired cognition, reality apathy, a weap­onised information environment, fragile complex infrastruc­ture, compromised privacy and data, weakened media insti­tutions, increased digital authoritarianism, fractured ideolo­gies and identities, and intensifying monetisation of attention. Why are these technological trends that impact informa­tion – and the way we process it – so dangerous for de­mocracy? As Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa says 3 :“With­out facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without all three, we have no shared reality and no democracy. And it becomes impossible to deal with our world’s existential problems.” But beyond impacting information, the tech industry is un­dermining democracy more directly. This is the“tech coup”, as described by former Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake. 4 Over the past few decades, under the cover of “innovation”, technology companies have successfully re­sisted regulation and have even begun to seize power from governments themselves. Tech has gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our de­mocracies. Connecting the dots Since at least 2014 we have been witnessing a coup against democracy unfolding across Europe and beyond – driven by a combination of hybrid warfare, the far right, and tech monopolies. Therefore, the mission 5 of Defend Democracy, an independent non-profit organisation, is to strengthen and defend democracy against foreign, domes­tic and technological threats. These three threats are not separate from one another; they are linked and are rein­forcing each other. Authoritarian regimes are deploying“sharp power” to un­dermine democracies from within by weaponising social media and digital technologies more broadly(e.g. apps, browsers, AI, etc.). Meanwhile, far-right internet movements have gained popularity and notoriety online and offline. And unregulated technology has not only become a forceful instrument for autocrats around the world, but also for Big Tech CEOs themselves. The“tech bros” have spent billions to help elect and appease the Trump II administration. As French President Emmanuel Macron says:“We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to[American and Chinese] social networks, whose inter­ests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies.” 6 Shielding European democracy? Yet the biggest danger to democracy is not any single one of these foreign, domestic or technological threats. Rather, it is the convergence of these three reinforcing trends that 1  V-Dem Institute(2025). Press Release: Restrictions to freedom of expression as democracy loses ground. Available at: https://v-dem.net/news/press-release-restrictions-to­freedom-of-expression-as-democracy-loses-ground/[Accessed 9 Feb. 2026]. 2  Wehsener, A., Zakem, V. and Miller, M.N.(2021). Future Digital Threats to Democracy – Trends and Drivers. Institute for Security and Technology. Available at: https://secu­rityandtechnology.org/virtual-library/reports/future-digital-threats-to-democracy-trends-and-drivers/[Accessed 9 Feb. 2026]. 3  Ressa, M.(2021). The Nobel Peace Prize 2021. NobelPrize.org. Available at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2021/ressa/lecture/. 4  Schaake, M.(2024). The Tech Coup. Princeton University Press. 5  Defend Democracy(no date).“Mission”. Defend Democracy. Available at: https://defenddemocracy.eu/about/mission/[Accessed 9 Feb. 2026]. 6  Defend Democracy(2025).“Europeans, let’s wake up!”. Defend Democracy. Available at: https://defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democracy-tech/[Accessed 9 Feb. 2026]. 2 Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.