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 in a debate in this campaign. This was not without disinformation, and several other things also happened during the week that we think worthy of note.
- The prime minister makes a misleading claim about cancer medication to appeal to voters.
During the debate held at the University of Malta on 18th May, in response to the Opposition leader Alex Borg’s promise that all cancer treatment will be given for free if the Nationalist Party is elected, Prime Minister Robert Abela stated that Borg “is not aware of what we are already doing” because “we give all the best cancer treatment medication” at the state’s oncology centre. The insinuation was that said treatment is given for free, by the government.
This is factually incorrect. The Maltese government does not fund all cancer treatment, as most cancer patients can attest. At least one member of our team knows this from first-hand experience; a relative who might have needed an alternative chemotherapy after reacting badly to her treatment was told that the hospital does not supply it “because it is too expensive”. She was told she would have to apply for funding via The Community Chest Fund – a non-governmental organisation funded by taxpayers – or, failing that, find the funds to pay for it herself.
Meanwhile, millions of euros are wasted on corruption. Apt to mention here is the notorious case of the sale of three of Malta’s state hospitals to a private consortium, which we wrote about in July 2024.
- Betting markets cash in on the election.
Earlier this month, Times of Malta reported that several markets on the world’s largest prediction market platform, Polymarket, are centred on Malta’s general election. Betting on election results is illegal in Malta, although it has long been believed to be rife. Prediction markets like Polymarket operate in a legal grey area. Cryptocurrency is being used, and the choice is deliberate: crypto is much harder for regulators to block than traditional payment methods. MaltaToday wrote about this story this week, and one expert consulted by the newspaper warned that these prediction markets can influence voters’ perceptions of candidates, or the way journalists read the election race, though it is unclear to what extent the vote itself is actually impacted.
- The Opposition’s chatbot hallucinates, producing flawed images of its election proposals.
Times of Malta ran a piece a few days ago highlighting how political parties are embracing AI in their campaigns. This includes visualisations of planned buildings, and claymation-style videos explaining election proposals. According to the newspaper, press releases and commentaries are also being entirely generated by AI.
Earlier this week, the Nationalist Party launched a chatbot alongside its electoral manifesto, intended to help voters navigate the manifesto and guide them towards which proposals apply to them directly. However, the chatbot began to hallucinate, producing AI-generated visuals that contrasted with the party’s proposals, and speculating about the party’s renewable energy targets. For example, when one user asked about the party’s proposed offshore fuel station, the bot gave an accurate description of said proposal, but it then went on to generate an image of an oil rig refuelling a rusty tanker at sea, undermining the proposal’s messaging about clean energy.
When the chatbot’s hallucinations were flagged by members of the public, party officials said AI “gives you a visual image that is not always correct,” adding that people frequently have to make a judgment on “what is truth and what is AI”. The chatbot has now stopped producing images.
Also on the subject of AI: in our previous two briefs, we highlighted AI slopaganda – AI-generated imagery that is created with the intention of influencing perception rather than to trick people into believing that it is real. In Malta, social media feeds are awash with this at the moment, and it is mostly being shared on Facebook groups gathering supporters of the two dominant political parties. Interestingly, most slopaganda appears to target the Nationalist Party.
- Ongoing mis/disinformation questioning the accuracy of opinion polls.
Polls published last week are all suggesting a similar outcome: a Labour Party victory. Some people have raised legitimate questions over the value of polling at election time, but others have spread conspiracy theories about the polls being a deliberate ploy to dishearten the Nationalist Party or misguide voters. Others have claimed that pollsters are intentionally hiding data. Some of those making these claims include former high-ranking party officials. A Times of Malta podcast episode attempted to address this mis/disinformation by clarifying the polling process.
- Suspicious websites emerged just before the election was called.
We have learnt that on 13th April, the domain appostli.com was registered. The website calls itself “The Digital Gospel of Malta”, focused on delivering “the outrage of the day”. Its Terms of Use state that “while the events, entities, and political figures referenced on this System are based on real-world occurrences in Malta, the articles, commentary, and reporting provided by our ‘12 Apostles’ are purely works of satire and fiction”. Interestingly, the Terms of Use also warn against visitors using the site to “spread actual disinformation”.
While the syntax, structure and wording of the site’s articles suggests a heavy use of AI, we cannot overlook the fact that the content is well-versed in local knowledge, particularly the nature of the political environment and the narratives circulating during this pre-election period. One narrative that continues to be repeated in the campaign and also by Appostli targets the Nationalist Party’s financial calculations in its electoral manifesto, portraying the Opposition leader puzzling over a calculator (see images).
Left: AI slopaganda shared on a Labour Party supporter group. Middle: an official Labour Party billboard (source: MaltaDaily). Right: Facebook post by Appostli. All three mock the Opposition leader’s financial calculations in the Nationalist Party’s electoral manifesto.
The content is decidedly biased towards the governing Labour Party, with strong, emotionally-loaded pieces about the government’s “successes” and the Opposition’s “weakness”. Even an article entitled “Opposition MP faces vile online attacks over electoral plans” goes on to say that “The PN [Partit Nazzjonalista/Nationalist Party] loves playing victim. They’re Olympic-level gold medalists at it.”
We also note the behaviour of the website’s corresponding social media presence. A post by the Appostli Facebook page can attract hundreds of reactions within minutes, and on inspection, the profiles engaging with the posts all appear to be fake, and do not even attempt to appear as genuine local profiles (see images). This is clear evidence of troll farming, a tactic of creating false engagement to manipulate public discourse. Interestingly, some posts attract a large number of real profiles; this appears to happen when the posts are shared to Labour Party supporter groups (see image). (On the matter of troll farming: Labour Party-owned media recently claimed to have found instances of troll farming on the part of the Nationalist Party, but this has not been independently verified.)
Troll farming: this post attracted 774 reactions within 16 minutes. All of the profiles appear to be fake. None of them even attempt to appear genuine.
A post that got shared to a Labour Party supporter Facebook group.
The Appostli Facebook page was created in January 2022 (two months before the last general election) under a different name, but it changed its name to Appostli on 22nd April 2026. As we said, appostli.com was registered on 13th April. Its Terms of Use are dated 21st April 2026. Malta’s general election was called on 27th April for 30th May.
The stated address of “Appostli HQ” is 142 Republic Street, Valletta, VLT1117, Malta. This address is also shared by website goodmorningmalta.com, which was registered on 19th March and updated on 1st April. This latter website appears to recycle content from local news websites, interspersing these articles with ones containing similar messages to those shared by appostli.com. One such article draws on the “maths problem” narrative used against the Nationalist Party, running the headline “Half the line, double the confusion: The PN metro math mystery” (see screenshot).
Screenshot of article on the goodmorningmalta.com site, which reuses the Labour Party’s narrative against the Nationalist Party’s financial calculations.
These sites require further investigation.
