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

🗳️ ⛓️ The false story that voting in the European elections is a crime. In Germany, false claims are circulating online – and particularly on Telegram – that voting in the European elections is a criminal offense, citing a 2012 German Federal Constitutional Court ruling as proof. However, the ruling pertains only to the allocation of seats in the Bundestag and has no bearing on European elections. This disinformation story is consistent with others detected in other countries – as reported in previous issues of the Bulletin – and tries to push citizens to not vote and mistrust the voting procedure.

Germany has been the first country where disinformation about the EU electoral process has been detected in the run-up to these elections. Correctiv, an investigative and fact-checking organization part of the EDMO network, published an analysis of the recent disinformation about the electoral process in the country. Read it here: Wahlen als Nährboden für Desinformation: Welche Fakes kursieren und wie wir uns wehren können (in German). 


🇪🇺 False stories sowing anti-EU sentiment hours before citizens cast their ballots. In many countries, false stories are circulating trying to discredit EU institutions or European membership. In Romania, false claims circulate on Facebook that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen advocated for “lockdowns” to combat disinformation. In a recent speech, she compared disinformation to a virus and emphasized “pre-bunking” – a preventive strategy to counter false information before it spreads trying to anticipate its possible patterns. This term was misinterpreted as “lockdown” in some Romanian social media posts, adding that “Von der Leyen promises to ‘vaccinate’ the EU population against ‘wrong thinking’”.

In Italy, in recent days, false stories spread claiming that the EU Commission censored the existence of chemtrails, even if it allegedly knew about their existence and dangerousness since 2015, or that the EU Parliament has hidden a document about the impact of 5G on health. In Bulgaria, false claims have exaggerated the number of citizens who oppose the Euro, while Russian propaganda has intensified its effort to boost Euroskepticism, according to EURACTIV.


🔎 Disinformation discrediting the EU in the Baltics ahead of the vote. Ahead of the European Parliament elections, mis/disinformation targeting the EU has been rampant in the Baltic states, according to an analysis by Re:Baltica, with the contribution of Delfi Estonia and Delfi Lithuania. False claims have included the EU forcing immediate use of electric cars, banning old car repairs, and prohibiting firewood heating.

According to these local fact-checking organizations, populist parties in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have spread these disinformation stories, especially on TikTok, to mobilize voters. Additionally, misleading narratives about the EU Migration Pact and election fraud have been prevalent. Kremlin disinformation has also persisted, accusing the West of staging the war in Ukraine and spreading falsehoods about Ukrainian leadership. Read the article here: Old cars, immigrants and war – how EU related misinformation is spread in the Baltics?

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 source: European Parliament