Research & Studies

A study published by the MedDMO team in the Online Information Review focuses on the perception of disinformation among journalism students in Greece, Cyprus and Malta. The study examines how journalism students in Greece, Cyprus and Malta perceive and understand disinformation, particularly with regard to migration issues.

Through this report, by focusing on Facebook, MedDMO demonstrates that deepfake-powered scams have emerged on social media platforms in Greece. Since late 2022, fact-checkers have identified several cases of fraudulent advertisements using AI-generated content, representing a notable evolution from traditional online fraud tactics.

In this report, we present the work conducted under Work Package 5 regarding the monitoring of media plurality in the region of Greece, Cyprus and Malta. The report examines the plurality and diversity of the news media ecosystem in 2024 in the three countries comprising the Mediterranean Digital Media Observatory (MedDMO) Hub.

Multiple false narratives about COVID-19 vaccines and their alleged harmful effects have spread across Cyprus, including fabricated stories about celebrity deaths caused by vaccines, distorted research findings about cancer survival rates and false claims about vaccines’ effect on behaviour. This report examines how some of these claims originated and made their way across the country.

This report examines a disinformation campaign promoting various unproven alternative medicine therapies and substances as miraculous cures for serious medical conditions. These narratives exploit people’s desire for simple, natural solutions to complex health problems while deliberately omitting critical safety information and scientific evidence.

In 2000, the Maltese government granted a private company a 99-year lease to develop two abandoned sites steeped in history on Malta’s north-eastern coast, including Manoel Island, a small island measuring just 0.3km , home to a magnificent fort and lazzaretto and nestled within one of Malta’s natural harbours.

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic, disinformation about vaccines remains widespread across Greece. Some falsely claim that vaccines are linked to aggressive forms of cancer, others distort studies to link them to genetic disorders and sudden deaths. This report examines some of the more prominent and problematic claims.

In a country that suffers from deep polarisation, protest for political accountability is dismissed as a partisan act. Malta’s ruling party, the Labour Party, particularly capitalised on this in early 2025, when civil society fought against the magisterial inquiry reform bill that was widely regarded as an attack on the rule of law. By propagating the narrative that civil society is an extremist faction of the Opposition, the government and its media have fostered social division as a means of exerting control.

The podcast run by controversial MEP Feidias Panagiotou has featured a series of misleading claims about the Russian-Ukraine war, including descriptions of the conflict as a civil war, rather than an international invasion. This report discusses some of the more prominent claims made on Panagiotou’s podcast.

This is the second part of MedDMO’s annual report on platform practices and national authority support for Cyprus, Greece, and Malta. Covering the period from 1 January to 30 June 2024, the report offers a qualitative assessment of how…

Ukraine is frequently depicted as playing a double game with its key Western allies through a series of false or misleading claims about land ownership, strategic resources, and population statistics.

This report examines several false claims shared across Cyprus about the alleged dwindling support that the Ukrainian cause is enjoying around Europe.

Abortion remains a contentious issue in Malta, the only EU country to prohibit the practice, except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk. Anti-abortion misinformation has been particularly widespread over the years, muddying the waters of the public debate. This report examines some of the most prominent anti-abortion narratives and presents the perspectives of pro-choice campaigners.

The European Parliament elections held in June 2024 saw widespread disinformation across Greece, Cyprus and Malta, often targeting issues such as migration, national sovereignty, and governance. This report explores how these disinformation narratives played out and impacted elections in each of the three countries.

Last summer’s Olympic Games featured historic performances and athletic feats that will be celebrated for years to come. But they also inspired a deluge of disinformation, often driven by pro-Russia actors. This report examines several of the false or misleading narratives linked to the Games.

This document is the first part of MedDMO’s annual report, detailing our monitoring of the media ecosystems in Cyprus, Greece, and Malta and evaluating platform practices to counter disinformation in support of National Authorities.

Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a series of claims aimed at discrediting Ukraine and reinforcing the narrative of widespread Nazism across the country have spread throughout Europe. This report explores some of the more prominent claims that spread across Greece over the past years.

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration as US President in January 2025, a wave of false and misleading claims spread across Greek social media. Several of these claims were spread or amplified by Trump himself, eventually making their way into Europe. This report explores several of these narratives.

Ukraine was the target of Russian disinformation long before Russia launched its invasion in 2022, but new disinformation narratives about Volodymyr Zelensky, his wife and associates have emerged in the subsequent years.

In this narrative report, we examine the mis/disinformation that circulated online in Greece from January 2024 – during the public consultation and subsequent passage of the law – up until June, LGBTQ+ community’s Pride Month.

This report examines the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in addressing the growing challenge of online disinformation. It provides an in-depth examination of AI-driven media verification techniques, focusing on automated fact-checking, text analysis, and detecting visual and multimodal disinformation, including deepfakes.

Malta was no stranger to the Covid infodemic that travelled the world in recent years. This report trawls through some of the false and misleading claims that made their way to Malta’s shores.

This report examines misleading claims spread in Greece about renewable energy, focusing on a recurring misleading narrative linking wildfires to the construction of inland wind farms in burned areas.

A series of conspiracy theories about Ukrainian labs carrying out research into pathogens were spread across Cyprus in recent months, in an attempt to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This report delves into how this narrative gained traction.

Last year a series of articles, including some about a political scandal that erupted in Malta, were taken down from Google’s search results after somebody mysteriously filed a series of copyright infringement claims against them.

A visit from Brazilian football sensation Ronaldinho to the occupied territories of Cyprus leveraged the player’s fame to spread disinformation narratives about sensitive political issues. This report delves into some of the claims made at the time.

In this report, we present the work conducted under Work Package 5 regarding the monitoring of media plurality in the region of Greece, Cyprus and Malta. The report examines the plurality and diversity of the news media ecosystem in 2023 in the three countries comprising the Mediterranean Digital Media Observatory (MedDMO) Hub. It follows last year’s Media Plurality Report and is the second release in an annual series published by MedDMO. The report is the outcome of a comprehensive review, data collection, and analysis of resources focused on the plurality and diversity of the three different news media ecosystems. It is based on the annual Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), International Press Institute, European Centre for Press, Media and Freedom and national reports, incorporating advice and feedback from community members as well as data from various valuable sources and scientific publications.

Migration and population have long been a popular topic of disinformation in Malta, Europe’s most densely populated country, frequently encouraging xenophobic sentiments and spreading fear. This report looks into several instances of disinformation surrounding the issue in recent months.

Unusual summertime weather conditions in Cyprus frequently fuel false and misleading narratives about climate change. This report examines some of these narratives, exploring how climate change denialism raises its head with the August rainfall.

Inquiries carried out by authorities in Malta, whether they are held in public or behind closed doors, have been a frequent target of mis- or disinformation. This report delves into several instances of this, examining some of the narratives frequently cited.

In the wake of a series of tragic construction-related incidents in Malta, this report investigates a series of disinformation narratives linked to the construction industry, one of the pillars of Malta’s economy.

The report looks into several harmful and malicious scams that have circulated across Maltese social media over the past months. The scams frequently use recontextualised content, AI-generated deepfakes or other malicious techniques to lure unsuspecting viewers into their trap.

The report looks into several harmful and malicious scams that have circulated across Maltese social media over the past months. The scams frequently use recontextualised content, AI-generated deepfakes or other malicious techniques to lure unsuspecting viewers into their trap.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has been the frequent target of disinformation in Cyprus

This report looks into several disinformation narratives about migrants in Cyprus, many of them making false claims about the number of migrants in the country and claiming that migrants are causing social unrest and putting Cyprus’ ethnic, religious and cultural identity in jeopardy.

This report highlights a series of disinformation narratives surrounding a controversial deal to hand over three of Malta’s public hospitals to a private consortium. A magisterial inquiry into the deal, recommended criminal charges against several key government officials, has been the subject of much debate in recent months.

This report highlights a disinformation narrative involving clips from border crossings on the double security fence located in the border region between Serbia and Hungary. These clips were used to mislead users into believing that the crossings take place in Evros’ border fence, the border region between Greece and Turkey. This work aimed to develop an understanding of how this disinformation narrative was spread and by whom.

This is the MedDMO annual report detailing the results of monitoring the online platform practices towards supporting the national authorities of Cyprus,

In the paper “HyperGraphDis: Leveraging Hypergraphs for Contextual and Social-Based Disinformation Detection,” we improved disinformation detection accuracy and computational efficiency on social media by introducing HyperGraphDis, a novel approach for detecting disinformation on Twitter

YouTube, as a dominant platform for video content, has become an essential source of information for many. However, its user-generated nature makes it susceptible to the spread of misinformation.

Recent events have demonstrated that disinformation spread through social networks can have dire political, economic, and social consequences. Detecting disinformation must inevitably rely on the structure of the network, on users’ particularities, and on event occurrence patterns.

YouTube has revolutionized how people discover and consume videos, becoming one of the primary news sources for Internet users. Since content on YouTube is generated by its users, the platform is particularly vulnerable to misinformative