WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND CLIMATE PHENOMENA ARE THE TOPICS MOST TARGETED BY FALSE STORIES
The four Italian editorial projects that published fact-checking content, and contributed to this report*, published a total of 206 fact-checking articles as of October 2024. Of these, 5 (2.4%) were about misinformation concerning the war in Ukraine, 30 (14.5%) about the war in the Middle East, 16 (7.7%) the pandemic, 20 (9.7%) climate change, 11 (5.3%) the European Union, 17 (8.2%) immigration and 6 (2.9%) gender or Lgbtq+ issues. The articles on the American election campaign were were 17 out of 206, or 8.2% of the total.
Misinformation about the conflict in the Middle East jumped significantly in October, increasing by about 10% compared to September, when it was around 4%. The same, according to Edmo’s findings, happened at the European level. There was also a significant growth in false climate stories, which exploited the various natural disasters that occurred during the month.
On the other hand, the decline in fake news on LGBT+ issues continued, after peaking in the summer months, and also misinformation on the presidential campaign in the United States decreased in intensity the month before of the election. With no major new developments, the other topics that Idmo monitors consistently remained remained more or less stable or underwent only slight variations.
DISINFORMATION FOCUSES ON OPEN FRONTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND CLIMATE DISASTERS
Some important developments in the Middle East war have been exploited to spread fake news. Besides falling on the anniversary of 7 October – when, after the Hamas terrorist attack, the armed conflict began – in the middle of the month, the Israeli army killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, an event that has been the subject of propaganda narratives and fake news, such as those according to which that Unrwa, the UN humanitarian organisation in Gaza, had provided bodyguards to Sinwar or expressed mourning for his death.
In addition to exaggerating military actions or their cruelty, other unfounded news stories circulated on the subject have amplified support for the various parties in the conflict, often generating content with AI (see slide 6). Still circulating is the Pallywood conspiracy theory, whereby the suffering of the inhabitants of Gaza is only simulated, while various contents have promoted anti-Semitism, perfno pointing as Zionist the President of the Republic Mattarella as a Zionist.
Read the full report here
