Welcome to Disinfo Bulletin, your daily update from the EDMO network. Today's most relevant stories:
🪖 False stories inciting fear of attacks on EU soil. In line with the false narrative exaggerating the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and the direct involvement of EU member states in the war in Ukraine, similar false stories suggested that a direct attack against the EU is being prepared by Russia. In Greece, it was claimed that the country is one of the targets of nuclear attacks by Russia; in Italy, that China would declare war on NATO if its member countries directly attacked Russia; and in Portugal, a video purported to show nuclear weapons mobilized by the Kremlin to target Western countries after the statements of French President Emmanuel Macron about sending troops to the invaded nation. All these claims are false or misleading, but they attempt to capitalize on fears of a possible escalation of the war, a tactic used by the Kremlin since the early stages of the conflict.
🤖 How AI is exploited to disinform in political campaigns. A recent report by ADMO, the EDMO hub covering Croatia and Slovenia, analyzed how generative AI was used to produce disinformation during the 2024 Croatian parliamentary election campaign and shortly thereafter. The analysis revealed that the primary social media platforms involved were TikTok and X and the content targeted the Croatian political elite. According to the report, the impact of the AI-generated disinformation on the election results was minimal, but it demonstrated the potential of this technology to influence politics. The full report can be found here: Generative AI Use and Disinformation during the Croatian Parliament Elections 2024.
🌐 🤬 Sweden's largest populist party embroiled in trolling scandal ahead of EU elections. Over the last weeks, a scandal has been uncovered at the highest levels of the communication division of the Swedish right-wing populist party Sweden Democrats (SD). Swedish broadcaster TV4 revealed that the party has effectively run secret accounts with which it attempted to manipulate public opinion. Moreover, one of the central figures in the trolling campaigns has been exposed as pro-Putin, supporting Russia's war in Ukraine. This scandal comes at a critical time before the EU elections, endangering the fragile government coalition in Sweden, known as Tidöavtalet, where SD supports the center-right government. Read the full investigation by TV4 here: Kalla faktas coverage of SD's troll factory.
A similar investigation was published a few days ago in Flanders, Belgium, by VRT NWS, the Dutch-speaking public broadcaster, whose fact-checking organization is part of the EDMO network. VRT NWS revealed that members of the Flemish right-wing party Vlaams Belang have been using “shadow accounts” on TikTok to subtly spread their views without clearly declaring their party affiliation. According to the article, these accounts belong to lesser-known candidates and party employees, with experts noting that personal attacks on other politicians are more evident here than on official channels. Read the full VRT NWS article here: Leden van Vlaams Belang gebruiken "schaduwaccounts" om standpunten op subtiele wijze te verspreiden op TikTok (in Dutch).
Similar tactics have been detected in the recent past also in Hungary.
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.
Photo: Ed Brambley
