The original concepts
The thesis builds a conceptual apparatus to analyse the threat and to respond to it. The concepts are named, defined and situated here. Their full operationalisation, coefficients, items, legal drafting, belongs to the manuscript, and each block indicates the relevant chapter.
- 01ESS
Epistemic Security Score
A composite index measuring the structural vulnerability of a democratic state to FIMI operations. It aggregates four sub-indices into a vulnerability profile, not into a simple average score.
Formula, bands and deposited results- Sub-indices: PDC (platform dependency), ITI (institutional trust), PSI (population sovereignty), IERI (information environment robustness).
- Formula: ESS = 0.30 × PDC + 0.25 × ITI + 0.25 × PSI + 0.20 × IERI.
- Four bands: Resilient (70 and above), Vulnerable (50 to 69), Critical (30 to 49), Emergency (below 30).
- Five deposited national contexts: Germany 99.5, Italy 61.7, France 60.0, Poland 22.3, Hungary 14.2. Interactive version in the ESS calculator.
Status · Full derivation of the weightings and normalised values: manuscript, Chapter 3, and the Zenodo deposit.
- 02CRMP
Cognitive Resilience Measurement Protocol
A protocol for measuring the epistemic resilience of a population, designed for longitudinal monitoring across several waves rather than for a single snapshot.
Purpose & articulation- Purpose: to assess, over time, the effect of prebunking and information-literacy measures.
- Articulation: it combines individual susceptibility as measured by the FBSS with the dynamics of institutional trust (the ITI sub-index).
Status · Detailed protocol and measurement schedule: manuscript, Chapter 5.
- 03FBSS
FIMI Belief Susceptibility Scale
A first-generation psychometric instrument, proposed by the thesis to quantify individual susceptibility to content falling under FIMI.
Object & anchoring- Object: to measure not adherence to a given piece of content, but permeability to the manipulation techniques that carry it.
- Anchoring: the primary measure administered in the trial is the per-stimulus credibility rating; the FBSS is its associated susceptibility scale.
Status · Items and psychometric properties (first-generation instrument): manuscript, Chapter 5 and Appendix B.
- 04ASE
Agence de la Sécurité Épistémique (Epistemic Security Agency)
An institutional architecture proposed by the thesis: a dedicated agency, distinct from existing bodies, endowed with statutory independence and an expanded mandate.
Positioning- Distinct from Viginum, whose mission is the detection and characterisation of digital interference.
- Distinct from the SGDSN, which ensures the coordination of national defence and security.
- Its own mission: interministerial coordination, a power of injunction and a foresight function on epistemic security.
Status · Legal status, organisational chart and competences: manuscript, Chapter 7.
- 05R1–R8
Societal resonators
A concept denoting the pre-existing vulnerabilities of the societal fabric, social, cognitive, identity-related, on which FIMI operations rely in order to spread. The thesis identifies eight, seven empirically grounded and one post-corpus theoretical addition.
The eight resonators- R1, institutional legitimacy deficit.
- R2, strategic autonomy ideology.
- R3, moral ecology tension and laïcité.
- R4, historical memory.
- R5, national belonging and inter-ethnic cohesion.
- R6, economic anxiety and deglobalisation.
- R7, geopolitical positioning ambivalence.
- R8, internalised identity depreciation (IID), a theoretical resonator added after the corpus.
Status · The full empirical definition and operationalisation of the eight resonators: manuscript, Chapters 2 and 4.
- 06T1–T3
Three-tier architecture
A response architecture proposed by the thesis, organised into three complementary tiers rather than a single measure: upstream, midstream and downstream.
Three tiers of response- Upstream (T1): building structural resilience, by acting on conditions and on the societal resonators.
- Midstream (T2): real-time detection and response, through institutional and legal capabilities.
- Downstream (T3): inoculation programming, population-level cognitive resilience.
Status · Detailed articulation of the three tiers: manuscript, Chapter 7.
Three concrete
amendments.
The thesis does not stop at diagnosis: it formulates three proposed amendments, whose purpose is summarised below.
- 01DSA · Article 40bis
Crisis-time FIMI response
Equip the Digital Services Act with an accelerated response mechanism, activatable during electoral sequences and acute information crises. A three-step timeline: data provision within 30 minutes, maximum demotion within 90 minutes, judicial review within 48 hours.
- 02AI Act · Article 50bis
Labelling of synthetic content
Extend the obligation to label AI-generated content to uses in an electoral context, via a machine-readable provenance signal (PCPS, Political Content Provenance Signal) and a proportionate sanctions regime.
- 03EDS · Governance
Independence of the European Democracy Shield
Enshrine statutory guarantees of independence for the European Democracy Shield (EDS, Joint Communication JOIN(2025)791, 12 November 2025), equivalent to those of Article 52 of the GDPR for independent supervisory authorities.
Status · The full drafting of the three amendments: manuscript, Chapter 6.
These concepts are connected to the field (documented cases) and to the method (methodology). For any citation request or academic exchange, see the contact page.