The Brief – A battle against disinformation was won

We may like or dislike the results of the European elections, but we can safely say that no major incidents involving propaganda and disinformation took place in the days of 6-9 June, which amounts to a victory for those who are busy countering this threat.

Russia and China are reported to have manipulated the online space in previous elections in Europe and elsewhere, including the 2016 US presidential vote. The same was expected to happen during the 2024 European elections.

Experts have warned that artificial intelligence could supercharge the spread of fake news that could disrupt the election in the EU and many other countries this year. The risks were seen as especially high in Europe, which has been confronting Russian propaganda efforts as Moscow’s war with Ukraine drags on.

Here is a small sample of media headlines from the days before the EU elections:

“Fake news on the rise as the European elections draw near” (Euronews), “AI could supercharge disinformation and disrupt EU elections, experts warn” (AP), “EU struggles to counter Russian election disinformation” (Reuters), “Disinformation often worst three days ahead of EU elections, says official” (EUobserver), “Europe’s election campaigns are under the constant threat of foreign interference” (France24).

The collection of scary titles could go on…

After the vote, there were no media stories on this subject and this is understandable, the election results are a bigger topic. And of course, when the train arrives on time, this is not a story.

Still, it would be wrong to say that no attempts were made by the Kremlin to wreak havoc in the days before the elections.

The most disturbing example was a fake article about introducing conscription, published in the official news stream of PAP, the official Polish news agency. But in general, there was no massive wave of disinformation that had been expected.

After the conclusion of the EU elections 2024, the coordinator of EDMO, the European Digital Media Observatory, published a short comment. The document reported that no significant last-minute disinformation-related incidents were detected.

“Awareness around the issue of disinformation by the political and media environment, as well as by the general public – together with the readiness of institutions, platforms, fact-checkers, researchers and of everyone involved in the fight against disinformation – could have deterred malicious actors from any major attempt in the last few days and hours before the vote”, the document said.

Indeed, EU institutions, NGOs, and an army of fact-checkers have been playing their part. This was EU money well spent.

Although differences remain across the EU countries, there has been progress everywhere and politicians hesitate to utter a lie or even a major exaggeration when they know they will be checked and debunked by the press.

In some EU countries, fake news has largely disappeared from the media, their main realm remaining the social media. But social media, largely under EU pressure, are also taking steps to clean up content.

My native Bulgaria, however, remains the country designated as “ground zero” for disinformation.

In Bulgaria, fake news continues to be spread by media, or more exactly, by websites that have the appearance of media although many of them do no display their ownership or editorial team. The reason is that the country’s regulator does little, or nothing, against them.

It is largely thanks to such “media” that a new far-right and pro-Russia political party was born – ‘Velichie’, or Greatness.

Pollsters were surprised by its sudden appearance, less so the journalists who came across ‘websites’ such as Krasivabalgaria, Krasivburgas, Krasivbatak, Krasivavarna, Krasivveligrad, Krasivovetrino, Krasivvalchidol, Krasivdobrich, or Krasivaprovadia.

Experts call this phenomenon “mushroom websites”.

Anti-EU content and climate-sceptic propaganda on such websites is further amplified on social media, mostly Facebook, and as a result, the “likes” were transformed into votes.

Overall, the European elections were a battle won in terms of fight against disinformation, but not the war. Much remains to be done but the efforts are paying off and our societies are hopefully becoming more resilient to charlatans.

The Roundup

G7 negotiators agreed on Thursday on a loan plan based on the size of their economies to provide Ukraine with about $50 billion in aid, expected to start flowing by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Facing a tough legislative election at the end of the month, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he wants to ban children under 11 from using mobile phones.

The lead candidate of French conservative Les Républicains (LR), François-Xavier Bellamy, announced on Thursday he would “of course” vote for a far-right candidate in the second round of snap legislative elections on 7 July if their opponent was from the left.

After dominating the political agenda for months, French farmers have been blindsided by President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly, which is blocking progress on the new law for the sector, and are threatening new protests.

The bloc’s executive has published a proposal lifting member states’ obligation to ensure that most common agricultural policy-related farm monitoring is carried out using geo-tagged photos by 2027.

Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister and Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz, who resigned this week as leader of the left-wing platform Sumar after the party’s dismal results in the EU elections, said on Thursday she had “never” thought of leaving the coalition government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party PSOE.

While recent parliamentary and European elections in Bulgaria were won by former prime minister Boyko Borissov’s centre-right GERB (EPP) party, second place went to the DPS party, headed by Deylan Peevski, a former media mogul sanctioned for corruption by the US and the UK authorities.

Triggered by proposed new rules on electric transformers, European power sector representatives have written to the European Commission to outline their wider issues with the EU’s approach to regulation.

EU elections are behind us but the fun is only just starting: Don’t forget to check out this week’s EU Elections Decoded for latest updates.

Euractiv has surveyed the British political parties’ positions on Europe: While the Labour’s 20-point lead suggests they will form the next UK government, continuity seems the more appropriate word for how Britain’s main parties view UK-EU relations.

Look out for…

• Commissioner Nicolas Schmit attends European Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty organised by EAPN Europe in Brussels on Friday.
• Justice and Home Affairs Council on Thursday-Friday.
• G7 summit in Italy on Thursday-Saturday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]