THE PANDEMIC IS THE TOPIC MOST TARGETED BY FALSE STORIES
The three Italian editorial projects that published fact-checking content and contributed to this report*, published a total of 152 fact-checking articles as of December 2024. Of these, 10 (6.6%) were related to disinformation concerning the war in Ukraine, 3 (2%) to the war in the Middle East, 17 (11.2%) the pandemic, 5 (3.3%) climate change, 5 (3.3%) the European Union, 8 (5.2%) immigration and 4 (2.6%) gender or Lgbtq+ issues.
Old conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-scientific content on vaccines have driven misinformation on the subject in December, and the relative percentage more than doubled. Also increasing was disinformation on the war in Ukraine, which, after a low in September, has followed an upward trend in recent months.
DISINFORMATION GENERATED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FALLS AGAIN
The percentage of fake stories exploiting AI-generated content continued to fall in December. Of the 152 fact-checking articles only four involved AI-generated or edited content, accounting for 2.6 per cent of the total of the disinformation detected. Contrary to the usual, the value is lower than the European average measured by EDMO
Among the AI-generated content that has been used to convey fake news are a video depicting the owner of X, Elon Musk, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni kissing, an alleged photo of the Vatican’s gold reserves, and another of an electric car allegedly built by Tesla as early as 1931. gold reserves of the Vatican, and another of an electric car allegedly built by Tesla as early as 1931 and then hidden from the world.
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