The US State Department lobbied Canada and European allies to withdraw support for an anti-disinformation conference because it included a panel examining Washington’s role as an alleged information threat to Europe, Reuters reported.

Three US officials familiar with the matter said diplomats spent several days pressing counterparts in Lithuania, Canada and France about the October 7-8 conference, organised by the Brussels-based nonprofit EU DisinfoLab. Correspondence reviewed by Reuters confirmed the outreach.

American diplomats persuaded the Canadian and Lithuanian foreign ministries, listed as the conference’s main supporters, to distance themselves. The EU’s External Action Service also disappeared from the supporter list. The French government remained the only main supporter.

The panel, titled USA as a FIMI threat: acknowledge, adapt, push back, followed an address by an International Criminal Court judge sanctioned by the US.

The State Department said putting the US in the same bucket as foreign adversaries was a false equivalence.