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

🤝🇺🇦 False stories undermining support for Ukraine. Aside from the disinformation narratives alleging direct EU involvement in ground operations in Ukraine, other false narratives are targeting support for the invaded nation. These narratives have been ongoing for months, but as EDMO highlighted in a recent Early Warning, they could escalate due to the new centrality in media coverage. For example, it has recently been claimed that Bulgarian citizens are being killed by the Ukrainian army with the same ammunition they sent to fight Russia, that support for Ukraine is devastating Europe, or that countries that contribute the most to aid to the country are responsible for fueling the war and killing Ukrainians. These false stories were detected in: BG, DE, LT.


🌪️ Disinformation about climate manipulation in Dubai. Recent violent flooding in the United Arab Emirates has been used to spread various conspiracy theories that somehow suggest human control of the climate. Apart from exaggerating the storm and rainfall, the false content claimed that it was caused by the “HAARP” project – a kind of laser beam, according to disinformers –, cloud seeding, or chemtrails, similar to the narratives that affected extreme events in the EU last year. Other claims suggested the presence of chemicals in the air due to Saharan dust carried by the wind, a common phenomenon in southern EU countries. Similar claims circulated in: EL, PL, ES, IT, RO.


🇷🇺 Doppelgänger disinformation campaign still running in the EU. Although uncovered in 2022, the pro-Russian “Doppelgänger” disinformation campaign, which spreads false articles imitating Western media, is still active. Recently, misleading posts on social media platforms like X have falsely claimed that articles from “Der Spiegel” accused the German government of being under US influence and criticized its policies, to tarnish Germany's support for Ukraine and stir up negative sentiment against the federal government. These efforts are linked to a coordinated network of bot accounts, which also promote posts and ads on social media. Read more here: "Doppelgänger"-Kampagne verbreitet gefälschte "Spiegel"-Artikel und schaltet Werbung in sozialen Medien


ℹ️ As tomorrow is a national holiday in various EU countries, the next issue of the Disinfo Bulletin will be delivered on Thursday, May 2.

ℹ️ Due to a malfunction of the tool used to distribute the Daily Bulletin, this issue has been released later than usual. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

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.