EDMO’s brief on the types of disinformation in Europe in April was released, with fake news around the coronavirus and the war in Ukraine decreasing significantly and fake news around climate change being stabilised.
In particular, of the 1,402 fact-checks published by the 30 organizations cooperating with EDMO, 173 (12%) were related to the war, 130 (9%) to climate change and 88 (6%) to the coronavirus pandemic.
In fact, much of the climate change disinformation comes from Spanish fact-checks that were written in response to conspiracy theories stating that April’s record temperatures in the country were caused by artificial intervention of weather patterns.
While for Ukraine, it is assumed that the drop in war-related fake news is just a sign of calmness before the “storm”, since this trend can easily change if the country launches a counter-offensive to regain territories.
At the same time, disinformation originating from Artificial Intelligence remained stable in Europe and at a low rate, making up only 4% of the articles.
Take here a more detailed read of the brief on disinformation in Europe in April 2023.
