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

💉🌍 Conspiracies about the pandemic are still circulating. Years after the implementation of the measures to contrast the spread of COVID-19, disinformation about them still affects the infosphere. Recently false claims have been circulated alleging that the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is under investigation because her husband allegedly works for the company that supplied a large amount of vaccine shots to the EU, during the worst phase of the pandemic. At the same time, false stories also suggest that the New York Times sued the EU Commission for handling the pandemic phase, similar to narratives used in national contexts.

Among the various conspiracies, a persistent disinformation narrative portrays allegedly dangerous effects of vaccines. A particular strand of this narrative seeks to capitalize on the deaths of athletes – and their appeal to the public – to falsely claim that they were caused by vaccines. Sometimes this narrative overlaps with Russian propaganda, as in recent cases in Italy where it was claimed that Navalny’s death was due to vaccination or that unvaccinated citizens were being recruited to fight in Ukraine.


🌱🔥 The misleading claim that the EU has banned the burning of garden waste in Sweden. Claims are circulating on social media that the EU has banned the burning of garden waste in Sweden. This misleading story has been widely shared on platforms such as TikTok. In reality, Sweden’s new waste regulations, effective from January 2024, result from an EU directive requiring member states to better manage bio-waste but, while the directive aims to promote recycling and protect the environment, it is not a direct ban. In fact, its implementation has led to differences among Sweden’s 290 municipalities, which can be flexible and consider exceptions. In recent months, other anti-EU messages about the Nature Restoration Law have circulated in the country, portraying the European institution as authoritarian.


🇪🇺 Concerns over Russian interference in Bulgarian elections. The European Parliament has expressed worry regarding Russian interference in Bulgaria’s national Parliament upcoming elections on June 9. In a resolution passed during its final plenary session in Strasbourg, the Parliament also highlighted the presence of a network of Russian-controlled disinformation agents in Bulgaria, operating across social media, traditional media, academic circles, and political parties. Additional concerns include the influence wielded by Russian state-owned properties in the country, such as the “Kamchia” complex on the Black Sea coast, a territory of nearly 470,000 square meters, wholly owned by the City of Moscow. Read more here and here.

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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.