Welcome to Disinfo Bulletin, your daily update from the EDMO network. Today's most relevant stories: 

🌍🌋 How climate denialism uses false assumptions on CO2. In the wave of usual climate denialism recently signaled in this newsletter and in the EDMO Early Warnings and Weekly Insights, a particular strand concerns the amount and effects of CO2 in the atmosphere. For example, false stories claim that there is no urgency to reduce CO2 to save the planet (or even that there is a “shortage of carbon dioxide”), that global forests absorb more CO2 annually than humans emit, or that a volcanic eruption emitted more CO2 than humans did in 100 years.

All these claims are proven false by science, but they often surface in several national political discourses, promoted by political actors or used to trivialize the climate crisis. This is a long-running false narrative but it has recently been detected in: PL, IT, DE, DA, ES, LT, FR, and other EU countries.


💉🇩🇪 The false story about the German government admitting that the pandemic was a psychological test. Most of the recent disinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic has focused on the alleged negative effects of the vaccines, but sometimes conspiracy theories also circulate. Recently, a false story claimed that Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, had admitted that “there was no pandemic” but “a carefully crafted military psychological operation to brainwash the masses into accepting lockdowns and an experimental vaccine with catastrophic consequences”. This false story was detected in: EL, PT, ES.


🔎 Professional fact-checking is better. A recent study by the Misinformation Review at Harvard University examines how Americans respond to fact-checking labels. According to the study, “U.S. adults evaluated fact-checking labels created by professional fact-checkers as more effective than labels by algorithms and other users”, showing that these labels have a significant impact on public perception of news credibility and highlighting the effectiveness of journalistic interventions to combat mis/disinformation. Read the full study here: Journalistic interventions matter: Understanding how Americans perceive fact-checking labels | HKS Misinformation Review .

If you have suggestions, comments or requests about this newsletter, you can write to edmo.tfeu2024@eui.eu

This tool gathers material from the inputs of the EDMO fact-checking network, as well as a recently launched public database from the EFCSN network (Elections 24 Check), and the various national EDMO hubs, including community initiatives and insights from individual fact-checking organizations.