The 34 organizations* part of the EDMO fact-checking network that contributed to this brief published a total of 1.416 fact-checking articles in December 2023. Out of these articles, 158 (11%) focused on the conflict between Israel and Hamas; 139 (10%) on climate change-related disinformation; 116 (8%) on Ukraine-related disinformation; 108 (8%) on disinformation related to the EU; 89 (6%) on COVID-19-related disinformation; 81 (6%) on disinformation related to immigration; and 20 (1%) on disinformation about LGBTQ+ and gender issues.
The percentage of disinformation about the crisis in the Middle East significantly drops for the second month in a row. It passed from 36% in October to 24% in November, and to 11% in December, most likely as a consequence of the “normalization” of the crisis-situation in the news cycle and in the public perception.
Disinformation about climate change doubled in the past month, from 5% in November to 10% in December. The same happened for EU-related disinformation, but in 2 months, going from 4% in October to 8% in December. The percentages of disinformation about the war in Ukraine and migrants increased by a few points and the other main disinformation topics monitored remained mostly stable.
DISINFORMATION SPREAD THE FALSE ALARM THAT “CHRISTMAS” AND RELATED TRADITIONS ARE UNDER ATTACK IN EUROPE
In December the fact-checking organizations of the EDMO network detected many false stories about alleged attacks against Christmas.
One of the most viral false stories in the EU (see slide n. 8) is the one about the European Commission prohibiting the use of the term “Christmas”. This story circulated also in previous years, but gained traction again during the recent holiday season.
Other local stories conveyed a similar narrative:
– In France, an AI-generated deepfake video portraying president Emmanuel Macron announcing that Christmas will no longer be a public holiday;
– In Hungary a false story about an alleged decision by the municipality of Berlin was detected, banning Christmas carols at Christmas markets in the city – according to various users, the decision was supposedly taken to avoid hurting the sensitivity of non-christian migrants;
– In Ireland, Dublin City Council was falsely accused to have renamed the city initiative ‘Winter Lights’ to avoid mentioning Christmas, again – according to many public posts online – to avoid offending non-christians.
AI GENERATED DISINFORMATION
Aside from the already mentioned AI-generated disinformation content about Macron announcing that Christmas will no longer be a public holiday, and about viral scams on social media platforms, other significant cases of AI- generated disinformation have been detected in December. Those include:
– in Ireland, an AI-generated image of a white homeless mother with children was used to stir animosity against migrants in the context of the housing crisis in the country;
– In the Czech Republic, an AI-generated recording (deepfake) of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife circulated in which the Ukrainian president complains about Western politicians (including Joe Biden) and rejects anti- corruption policies.
– in many EU countries (see slide n.8) AI-generated images of weapons under the Shifa Hospital in Gaza circulated
As for the amount of detected AI-generated disinformation, the percentage is still low (48 articles out of 1.407 total, 3%) and similar to the one recorded in November (4%).
Read the full paper here
