The EU's foreign minister said on Sunday that last week's siege of the US Capitol exposed the dangers of allowing the degradation of democratic values to go unchecked and misinformation to spread online.
"What we saw on Wednesday was only the climax of very worrying developments happening globally in recent years," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a blog post.
"It must be a wake-up call for all democracy advocates.
"Everybody needs to understand that if we accept setbacks after setbacks, even if they seem minor, democracy and its values and institutions can eventually and irreversibly perish."
President Donald Trump is facing a renewed drive by Democrats to remove him from office after he incited supporters to storm the US Capitol, based on the unsubstantiated claim that he lost the November 3 election because of widespread voter fraud.
The assault by rioters left five people dead.
"In case anyone had any doubts, the events in Washington also show that disinformation constitutes a real threat for democracies," Mr Borrell said.
"If some people believe that an election was fraudulent, because their leader has been once and again telling them, they will behave accordingly."
He called for better regulation on social networks, and said this could not be carried out by the companies themselves.
Twitter permanently cut off Mr Trump's personal account and access to his nearly 90 million followers late on Friday, saying it was to avert the risk of further incitement to violence.
He has repeatedly used Twitter and other platforms to claim the election result was fraudulent and to share other conspiracy theories.
The EU's executive Commission last month proposed rules to clamp down on fake news on social media.
These would force large online platforms to tackle illegal content and intentional manipulation of platforms to influence elections and public health, or face fines up to 6 per cent of global turnover.
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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
