DISINFORMATION ABOUT THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST DOUBLES
The 33 organizations* part of the EDMO fact-checking network that contributed to this brief published a total
of 1.812 fact-checking articles in October 2024. Out of these articles, 101 (6%) focused on Ukraine-related disinformation; 196 (11%) on climate change-related disinformation; 78 (4%) on disinformation related to the EU; 227 (13%) on the Middle Eastern regional conflict; 77 (4%) on COVID-19-related disinformation; 102 (6%) on disinformation related to immigration; and 29 (2%) on disinformation about LGBTQ+ and gender issues. Articles disinformation related to the US presidential election were 155 out of 1812, which is 9% of the total.
The war in the Middle East emerged as the most targeted topic by false stories in October. The percentage of disinformation related to the issue more than doubled during the last month, it was 5% of the total in September. False information on climate change also grew notably, passing from 7% to 11% in one month, exploiting the climate disasters that occurred within and outside the EU.
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.
FALSE STORIES EXPLOITING CLIMATE DISASTERS
As in the past, the occurrence of climate disasters has been followed by a resurgence of climate disinformation. In addition
to the ever-present circulation of false claims denying global warming, the impact of human activity on it, and the effectiveness of countermeasures to the crisis, disinformation in October focused on specific events: in particular, the hurricanes in the United States and the devastating floods in Spain.
At the beginning of the month, the US was hit by two destructive hurricanes, named Helene and Milton. In the European infosphere, old or unrelated photos and videos, as well as AI-generated content, were used to exaggerate the phenomena and attract the attention of social media users. Various conspiracies also circulated, for example claiming that the hurricanes had been deliberately provoked using geoengineering techniques. At the same time, with the US presidential race in full swing, false stories spread by Republican propaganda – magnifying Trump’s contribution to the emergency and suggesting that the Democrats were slowing down or obstructing aid to the affected areas – reached the EU.
The catastrophic flash floods that hit southern Spain at the end of October have been named the “Spanish floods of the century”. In the aftermath of the disaster, a huge amount of disinformation stories began to circulate, including panic-triggering claims and false warnings. Related disinformation stories claimed that the storm was intentionally caused using alleged weather modification techniques, or that the flooding
was the result of the government’s deliberate demolition of dams, another false narrative recycled from disinformation about past catastrophic events. As this extreme phenomenon occurred in the last days of October, these unsubstantiated claims have been tracked mainly in Spain, but it will likely be possible to track their spread in other EU countries, in the next brief about disinformation in November.
You can read the full Monthly Brief here
