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

🇪🇺 💉 Disinformation about vaccines and the EU. Aside from the disinformation narratives about the pandemic, still circulating in the infosphere as already mentioned in this newsletter, a new wave of false stories surged after AstraZeneca withdrew its vaccine from the market. The main reason cited for the withdrawal was competition from more effective vaccines, but false stories claim that the European Medicines Agency had actually unilaterally banned AstraZeneca's vaccine because shots were allegedly dangerous or could cause death, side effects and serious illness.

Recently, other stories verified as false by independent fact-checking organizations also alleged a deeper involvement of the EU in alleged manipulations about vaccines. False stories circulated in recent days suggest, for example, that the EU Parliament censors discussions about vaccination or that a vaccination certificate will be required to vote in the upcoming EU elections.


⚖️ Early Warning – ICC warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders. The International Criminal Court prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes is expected to spark significant disinformation. Since the war in the Middle East is one of the most polarizing issues of the international debate, this news is likely to fuel false narratives and misleading content, potentially exacerbating tensions and divisions within Europe and globally. Disinformation could exploit this situation to further polarize opinions.

False narratives could include exaggerations of the ICC’s findings, false claims of international conspiracies or the demonization of the two sides in the war (as it happened in the first phase of the conflict). The legality and implications of the ICC’s decisions could also be targeted. 


🌍 The EDMO monthly brief on disinformation detected in April is out. According to information provided by 36 fact-checking organizations that contributed to this edition, the main topics of disinformation in April were the EU (11% of the total detected disinformation items, the highest value since the dedicated monitoring began), climate change (11%), Ukraine (10%) and the conflict in the Middle East (10%).

The main disinformation phenomenon detected during last month was the rise of disinformation about the EU, e.g.:

• • False stories about the alleged direct involvement of EU countries in ground operations in Ukraine or the escalation of the war;

  • Misleading information and conspiracies about EU policies and laws, especially those aimed at countering the effects of climate change.

You can read the full brief here: Monthly brief no. 35 – EDMO fact-checking network

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.