News

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

May 8, 2026 Informational workshops for students on the topic of “Disinformation and Content Verification” were conducted by the Journalism Research Laboratory (J-Lab) of the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus on Wednesday, 06/05/2026, at the Regional Gymnasium of Agia Varvara in Nicosia. The workshops were held within the framework

Yesterday’s media literacy and digital verification workshop held in Larissa, Greece brought together eight journalists from regional media organizations, including online news platforms and radio stations.

March 13, 2026 Online disinformation and ways to tackle it were the focus of the second open event of MedDMO, which took place on February 26 at the Information Center – “Stelios Ioannou” Library of the University of Cyprus, in Nicosia. With the presence of people from both academia and the media, but of course

In a recent interview with Euronews, Michalis Sirivianos, scientific coordinator of Fact Check Cyprus and member of the MedDMO, commented on the controversy surrounding leaked video footage that circulated widely on social media in Cyprus earlier this year.