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

🇮🇷 🚁 Conspiracies about the helicopter crash that led to the death of Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi. A few hours later the news of Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash, unproven information started circulating in various European countries. False claims used images purporting to show the helicopter the Iran president was traveling on. A significant false claim has been tracked in Poland linking what so far is described by most media as an incident with alleged US actions, part of a conspiracy that also suggests US responsibilities in the attempted assassination of the Slovak PM Robert Fico – alleging a coordinated effort by the US to eliminate leaders opposing its hegemony. Such claims are unproven and official sources have not reported any evidence of sabotage.


🎤 🏳️‍🌈 False stories steering hate against LGBTQ+ community. In recent days, in Italy, a false claim stated that the colorful rainbow flag was chosen by the LGBTQ+ community to attract children, consistent with the disinformation narrative that tries to link LGBTQ+ people to pedophilia.

Other recent unfounded claims leveraging anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment have exploited the media attention on the Eurovision Song Contest. For example, a false story compared an alleged photo of the winners of Eurovision 2024 to one of the 1974 winners, ABBA. The alleged photo of the 2024 winners was actually AI-generated to portray the song contest as decadent and corrupt. In addition, the actual winner, who identifies as non-binary, was falsely accused of wearing Satanic symbols.


🔍 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 Needs and challenges for Iberian fact-checkers. A recent IBERIFIER report presents an in-depth investigation into the current state of fact-checkers in Spain and Portugal, highlighting their training and technological needs. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the findings reveal a significant interest in AI and OSINT, with 76% of fact-checkers eager to integrate AI into their workflows. The report underscores the necessity for specialized tools for social network analysis, web scraping, and advanced video editing to enhance fact-checking efficiency and accuracy. Read the full report here: IBERIFIER Reports – Needs and challenges for Iberian fact-checkers .

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

What is a “disinformation narrative”? Please find here a short methodological note about the definition used by the EDMO fact-checking network.

The Disinfo Bulletin 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.