Malta is no stranger to political disinformation. As a country dominated by the two larger parties – the Labour Party (Partit Laburista) and Nationalist Party (Partit Nazzjonalista) – polarisation and rivalry fuel false and misleading narratives directed at maintaining power. In the run up to an election, this is only more evident.
Malta 2026 General Election Watch: Post-Vote Analysis Read More »
In last week’s brief, we highlighted suspicious websites that emerged in the weeks just before and after Malta’s election was called. Since then, we have done some more digging, and it seems the story goes a lot deeper. We have therefore decided to dedicate this week’s brief to outlining the facts we know so far of what appears to be something worth investigating further.
Malta general election 2026 – Weekly brief #4: A story worth chasing Read More »
May 25, 2026 By Theofile Bloudanis The “Sandy” case, or “Sandygate”, in Cyprus quickly moved from the realm of a political and judicial scandal to that of a controversy over the reliability of the digital evidence linked to the investigation that “exposed” the scandal. The accusations made public by journalist Makarios Drousiotis, a candidate in
May 25, 2026 By Thanos Sitistas Behind seemingly harmless videos of young Chinese women speaking fluent Greek, sharing everyday moments, cultural stories and cheerful messages about China, a more complex influence operation appears to be taking shape. A network of Greek-language social media accounts, some officially labelled by Meta as China state-controlled media, has built
May 22, 2026 This is the third in a series of weekly briefs produced by MedDMO in the run-up to Malta’s general election on 30th May 2026. The previous briefs can be found here and here. This week saw the leaders of each political party contesting Malta’s general election face off for the first time
Malta general election 2026 – Weekly brief #3: Unearthing a Pandora’s box Read More »
MedDMO will participate through its representatives in the 14th Regional Growth Conference, taking place at the Conference and Cultural Center of the University of Patras from May 19 to 21.
Strong MedDMO Presence at Major Regional Development Conference in Patras Read More »
As Cyprus and Malta enter an important electoral period, the Mediterranean Digital Media Observatory (MedDMO) is activating its monitoring and analysis processes aimed at identifying potential cases of online disinformation, information manipulation, and coordinated influence operations that may affect public discourse and democratic processes.
Elections in Cyprus and Malta: MedDMO on alert Read More »
This week saw the call for nominations for Malta’s general election close, with 162 candidates submitting a total of 282 candidatures. But other things happened, including more AI slopaganda, the removal of a political-party-affiliated Facebook page following mass reports, the prevalence of political adverts in violation of platforms’ own terms of service, and a wave of xenophobia spurred by populism from the prime minister. We outline these below.
As Greece approaches the August 2026 EU deadline for replacing old identity cards with the new biometric ID-1 format, public debate has been accompanied by a wave of misleading claims and conspiracy-driven narratives concerning the new identity system, disseminated by both individual citizens and political actors.
New Identity Cards In Greece Read More »
May 8, 2026 On 27th April, Malta’s prime minister Robert Abela announced a snap general election for 30th May, nine months before his administration’s term is due to be up. Political parties are now in full campaign mode. Billboards mark the country’s roads, leaflets fill letterboxes and lie scattered in gutters, doorbells ring as candidates
Malta general election 2026 – Weekly brief: AI slopaganda and identity politics Read More »
Take our survey and help us understand how disinformation spreads.