DISINFORMATION ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE AND US ELECTIONS RISES, WHILE DISINFORMATION ABOUT MIDDLE EAST PLUMMETS
The 34 organizations* part of the EDMO fact-checking network that contributed to this brief published a total of 1.781 fact-checking articles in November 2024. Out of these articles, 139 (8%) focused on Ukraine-related disinformation; 230 (13%) on climate change-related disinformation; 83 (5%) on disinformation related to the EU; 53 (3%) on the Middle Eastern regional confict; 69 (4%) on COVID-19-related disinformation; 68 (4%) on disinformation related to immigration; and 41 (2%) on disinformation about LGBTQ+ and gender issues. Articles on disinformation related to the US presidential election were 229 out of 1.781, which is 13% of the total. The main disinformation phenomenon in November was the catastrophic foods that hit southern Spain, partly contributing to the increase in climate-related disinformation that almost doubled in two months, passing from 7% in September to 13% in November. Disinformation on the US presidential elections also increased slightly, as did the percentage of false stories about the war in Ukraine and the EU. Disinformation about the war in the Middle East, which was the most targeted topic by false stories in October, dropped to 3% from 13% in October. The shares of disinformation on the other constantly monitored topics remained stable or decreased by a few percentage points, as in the case of baseless claims about migration, COVID-19, and LGBTQ+-related issues.
DISINFORMATION ABOUT THE DEVASTATING FLOODS IN SPAIN
The disinformation narratives about the catastrophic fash foods that hit southern Spain at the end of October, which were already signaled as circulating in Spain in the last brief, have expanded their circulation and relevance to the entire EU. In particular, false stories that the storm was man-made through alleged geoengineering techniques or deliberately caused by the destruction of the dams in the region of Valencia were tracked by the EDMO network in the vast majority of EU countries (see slide 7). These conspiracies suggest that the wave of destruction and death brought to the Spanish region was intentionally caused through antennas, mysterious ships allegedly preparing the storm with HAARP technologies, planes spraying the atmosphere for days, and the demolition of the dams promoted by the national government and the EU. The EU parliament was also accused of denying a minute of silence for the victims. In other cases, these false stories were linked to supposed “meteorological attacks”, punishment for criticizing Israel, or plans to redesign cities, while alarmist claims on the death tolls, once ofcially disproved, turned on conspiracies that the authorities aim to hide the real number of casualties.
More realistic false stories also tried to blame institutions, political or scientifc, for the catastrophe alleging their incompetence. Although the local government has actually been accused of not being timely in its responses to the crisis, demonstrably false claims accused the Spanish meteorological agency of not understanding the severity of the phenomenon while state agencies in neighboring countries allegedly did (this specifc false statement also appeared on newspapers) and the national Government of not having an idea of how to respond to the emergency. The Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations were targeted by false statements accusing them of hindering the arrival of aides to the hitten territories or distracting them to migrants, who were allegedly profting from the disaster. Such baseless claims gained millions of views on TikTok without the social media taking action. The attention generated from the situation in Spain has been exploited also to revive the usual denialism and a diverse selection of conspiracies about weather manipulation or false stories claiming the inefectiveness and absurdity of climate actions, or that more and more countries are withdrawing support for common climate goals.
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