Digital Skills Coalition Belarus is a civil society organisation supporting Belarusian civil society, journalists, and the independent Belarusian media ecosystem in exile. We are currently based in Lithuania and work with Belarusian organisations, journalists, activists, and experts across different countries.
What is your mission?
Our mission is to strengthen the resilience and capacity of Belarusian civil society and independent media. We do this through research, monitoring, digital security, fact-checking, and capacity building.
A key part of our work is helping journalists and civil society actors develop the practical skills and tools they need to work effectively and safely in a rapidly changing digital environment—including the responsible and practical use of artificial intelligence.
What does your work look like in practice?
Our work combines research, practical support, training, and monitoring. One of our key initiatives is FactCheck.LT, a fact-checking outlet covering disinformation targeting Belarus and the Baltic region. We also systematically analyse information manipulation campaigns, including those conducted by authoritarian state media.
Through these activities, we help journalists and civil society organisations better understand the information environment and develop evidence-based ways to identify and respond to manipulation.
What are you most proud of?
There are three areas of our work that we are particularly proud of.
1. Digital security and organisational resilience
In 2026, we are implementing the DIGISEC Accelerator for Belarusian civil society organisations. The programme helps organisations strengthen their digital security and introduce practical security solutions into their everyday operations.
2. Fact-checking and countering FIMI and disinformation
Through FactCheck.LT, research, and systematic monitoring, we analyse disinformation and information manipulation, including Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and campaigns conducted by authoritarian state media.
This work helps journalists and civil society actors better understand the information environment and respond to manipulation using evidence-based approaches.
3. Digital and AI skills development
We help journalists, activists, and civil society organisations build practical digital and AI skills.
Through initiatives such as AI Month / AI4BY and specialised training, participants learn how to use AI-powered tools for tasks including content verification, transcription, research, and cross-platform analysis. At the same time, we emphasise a responsible and practical approach to using AI.
What are the biggest challenges facing Belarusian civil society and independent media today?
One of the biggest challenges is the lack of resources and operational capacity.
Many organisations have limited human, technical, and financial resources for their day-to-day work. At the same time, they must respond to growing digital-security threats, increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaigns, rapidly evolving AI technologies, and the additional challenges of working in exile.
This means that the challenge is not simply access to new technologies. The real challenge is ensuring that civil society organisations and independent media have the resources, skills, and capacity to integrate these technologies sustainably into their everyday work.
What is your biggest aspiration for the future?
Our biggest aspiration is to help create a sustainable support infrastructure for Belarusian civil society and independent media in exile.
This would mean stable access to expertise, secure technologies, digital and AI skills—and, most importantly, the human and financial resources needed to use them effectively.
Why is this so important?
Because Belarusian civil society and independent media already have significant expertise, motivation, and ideas. What they often lack is sustainable capacity.
Strengthening that capacity would allow organisations not only to respond to today’s challenges, but also to remain resilient, adapt to future changes, and be better prepared for what comes next.
What needs to happen now?
The next step is to move from short-term support to long-term investment in capacity.
Belarusian civil society should not have to rebuild its digital, organisational, and human capacity every time a new crisis emerges. We need to invest now in the people, skills, technologies, and infrastructure that will allow independent civil society and media to remain strong and effective over the long term.
This is where partners, donors, technology providers, and the wider democratic community can make a real difference. Supporting capacity today means strengthening the democratic resilience of Belarus for tomorrow.
For more information about us, visit https://digitalskills.lt/en/.
