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

🇸🇰 The May 15 assassination attempt on Slovak PM Robert Fico has already created a storm of dangerous, false narratives. One of the first to circulate was a fake image of the shooter portrayed as interacting with Martin Šimečka, journalist and father of the co-founder of Slovakia’s main opposition party. This was quickly exposed as false information and flagged as such by Meta. But another debunked false story has already emerged in the country, claiming that the main opposition party endorses the violent act, instead of condemning it. However, these are not the only unfounded claims circulating about the tragic event.

In other EU countries – aside from the false story alleging his death – fact-checking organizations are reporting a surge of anti-vaccines, anti-Ukrainian, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the attempted assassination. Some unproven claims allege that Ukrainian intelligence services are behind the shooting, while others suggest motives tied to the WHO pandemic treaty or to George Soros. Alex Jones, a well-known conspiracist, shared a post on X soon after the shooting suggesting that NATO wants Fico’s death, another of the false narratives circulating on social media. 

 
Accounts dedicated to debunking disinformation have issued alerts regarding the potential impact of the dissemination of such disinformation on the already bitterly divided Slovak political landscape. The Slovak interior minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, stated: “We are on the doorstep of a civil war. The assassination attempt on the prime minister is a confirmation of that”, adding “Many of you sowed hatred, and it turned into a storm”, addressing the media and “hate-mongers” on social media.


🕵🏻‍♂️🧑🏻‍💻Two Moldovan brothers appear to be helping Russia to carry on cyberwarfare into Europe. On Thursday, an investigation by Correctiv – a German investigative and fact-checking organization part of the EDMO network – reported that two brothers from Moldova are providing IT infrastructure to support Russian cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns across Europe. Despite EU sanctions, their company, PQ Hosting, enables Russian hackers and propagandists to operate through EU-based servers, hiding their activities through complex corporate structures and shell companies, Correctiv reports. Read the full investigation here: Hacks und Propaganda: Zwei Brüder aus Moldau tragen Russlands digitalen Krieg nach Europa (in German).


🔦💸 Massive scam campaign on X exposed. Maldita.es, a Spanish fact-checking organization also part of the EDMO network, published an in-depth investigation on Thursday into a massive crypto scam promotion campaign that used X ads and blue checks to impersonate celebrities and media outlets. The research reveals that scammers garnered 76 million impressions on X from 165 paid ads in less than three months, reaching 38 million users. These ads likely violated Spanish law and X policies and employed cloaking techniques. Additionally, for 6 out of 10 posts, X's DSA ads repository lacked the necessary information, and “X could be breaching its obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA)”, the report says. Read a summary in English or the full report (in Spanish) here: 76 million attempts to scam you on X, using celebrities.


🎯 Check out the latest issue of the EDMO Weekly Insights and Early Warnings ahead of the June elections. This week’s edition looks at several disinformation narratives, encompassing the alleged direct involvement of the EU in Ukraine, the pandemic, and narratives pushing xenophobia and Islamophobia. It also includes early warnings on what kind of disinformation to expect after the attempted assassination of Slovak PM Rober Fico, controversies about flags at the Eurovision Song Contest, and the disinformation about electoral integrity in the EU. Read the full text here: WEEKLY INSIGHTS and EARLY WARNINGS, n. 6.

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.