EDMO Briefs

Fake news related to either the war in Gaza or Covid-19 was on the rise in May 2025, according to EDMO data. At the same time, fake news about the war in Ukraine and the EU remained the main areas of disinformation during this month.

The topics from which disinformation originates in Europe appear to have stabilized in April 2025, according to data collected by EDMO.

Disinformation related to the war in Ukraine reached its highest level in the last two years, according to data from EDMO fact checkers for March 2025.

A slew of false or misleading statements were made by US President-elect Donald Trump and other members of his administration in February 2025.

Disinformation about climate change and migration gained ground in January 2025, according to data from EDMO’s fact-checking network.

Disinformation about Syria saw a sharp rise in December, in the wake of the overthrow of the Assad regime by the country’s opposition forces.
The majority of false claims circulating on EU social media were clickbait and included the use of out-of-context images

Malicious disinformation narratives about the devastating floods that hit southern Spain in late October 2024 continued to circulate and increase their impact across the EU.

The war in the Middle East emerged as the most targeted topic by false stories in October, followed by false stories exploiting climate disasters.

Malicious misinformation about the US Elections and immigration were the top two thematic areas that EDMO network detected throughout September 2024, according to the corresponding brief.

A clear rise in migration-related disinformation narratives was recorded by the European Digital Media Observatory in August, with related reports accounting for 9% of the total, up from 7% in July.