Uncategorized

US anti-disinformation guardrails fall in Trump’s first 100 days

Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

May 5, 2025 From slashed federal funding for disinformation research to the closure of a key agency combating foreign influence operations, the United States has dismantled vital guardrails against falsehoods within President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. The moves could have national security implications, experts warn, granting US adversaries such as Russia and […]

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Hijacking news: Fake media sites sow Ukraine disinformation

Politics, Technology, Ukraine, Uncategorized

April 23, 2025 A fake news website falsely claimed that Ukraine’s president is paying Western reporters to tarnish US President Donald Trump — part of a series of deceptive reports spread by Russian-linked portals mimicking media outlets. The disinformation tactic, amid heightened international efforts to halt the three-year war with Russia, seeks to undermine both

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Fact check Malta: Labour Party supporters use AI to turn civil society protest into a partisan battle

Fact Check, Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

April 14, 2025  Supporters of Malta’s Labour Party are sharing photorealistic AI-generated images in partisan Facebook groups that attempt to portray opposition leader Bernard Grech at a civil society protest in the capital city of  Valletta. A protest was held by a number of local NGOs on 2nd April 2025 outside the parliament building in

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‘Form of violence’: Across globe, deepfake porn targets women politicians

Editors Pick, Politics, Society, Technology, Uncategorized

January 15, 2025 From the United States to Italy, Britain, and Pakistan, female politicians are increasingly becoming victims of AI-generated deepfake pornography or sexualized images, in a troubling trend that researchers say threatens women’s participation in public life. An online boom in non-consensual deepfakes is outpacing efforts to regulate the technology globally, experts say, with

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Fact-check Malta: The country has bad buildings, but this isn’t one of them

Economy, Politics, Uncategorized

October 22, 2024 Poor and tasteless construction is rampant in Malta. So it is no surprise that many Maltese believed that a particular image published on Facebook showed a local building. A reverse image search on Google quickly shows that the building is not in Malta. Search results show that it first went viral in

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Fact-check Malta: Are tourists in Malta spending more than they used to?

Economy, Society, Uncategorized

September 6, 2024 With the tourist season in full swing, the debate over the type of tourists arriving in Malta, and their impact on Malta’s economy, has once again hit the front pages. Tony Zahra, the president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, one of Malta’s main tourism lobby groups, was the first to

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Fact-check Malta: How scammers are trying to get into your WhatsApp account

Fact Check, Society, Uncategorized

August 30, 2024 Have you recently received an “urgent” WhatsApp message from your friend asking you to send them a code? That ‘friend’ is no friend at all but a scammer trying to worm their way into kicking you out of your WhatsApp account. Police have urged the public to take more care as reports of WhatsApp

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Fact-check Malta: No, Mater Dei is not removing crucifixes from its walls

Society, Uncategorized

July 31, 2024 As the court cases in connection to the fraudulent privatisation of three of Malta’s state hospitals continue, some locals believe another hospital-related line has been crossed. This time, though, the issue is the supposed removal of crucifixes from wards. On Sunday 28 July, several Facebook users shared posts claiming that Mater Dei

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The Mediterranean Digital Media Observatory (MedDMO) is an alliance of fact-checkers, media literacy experts and scientists taking a coordinated approach to combating disinformation and misinformation.

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This project has received funding from the European Union under Grant Agreement number 101083756. This website reflects the views only of the independent Consortium, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.