Executive Summary
In light of the EU’s global leadership role, disinformation across the EU is focused on attacking its geopolitical stature, history, and legacy of integration and shared principles. This year’s European Parliament election was marked by disinformation campaigns seeking to deceive EU citizens around transnational issues such as climate change, Ukraine, and immigration.
While the EU is often depicted and referred to as a monolithic transnational entity with common sociopolitical and regulatory standards, the truth is that extensive political and economic divergence endures across Member States, resulting in significant variances in terms of social media usage, the degree to which citizens can identify disinformation, and media and civil society development.
These elections were notable for being the first European Parliament elections since two major developments within the Union: UK’s Brexit and the implementation of the EU’s most significant technology regulation in the past decade, the Digital Services Act (DSA). While it is difficult to measure the DSA’s success, its additional requirements and guidelines have undoubtedly compelled platforms to become more diligent in assessing and mitigating risks. They have also helped to create greater transparency.
Yet tech companies have more work to do. This was evidenced by research which uncovered chatbots generating false information regarding elections, ads with false information that passed through platform controls, and ongoing Russian disinformation operations on some platforms. Furthermore, content moderation teams have suffered from cutbacks, diminishing language capabilities and regional coverage. Meanwhile, X has changed the terms of accessing its API and discontinued what was known formerly as the “Twitter Moderation Research Consortium,” while Meta discontinued Crowdtangle and the efficacy of its replacement remains in question. With these developments, platform efforts to cooperate with researchers and other experts in analyzing tactics and finding possible solutions seem further hindered.
The trends around online political advertising are also alarming. The EU Commission opened formal proceedings against Meta due to potential DSA infringements on deceptive advertising and disinformation after researchers found pro-Russian propaganda ads and coordinated inauthentic activity. This election also featured high amounts of spending on online advertising by right-wing and far-right parties which contained inflammatory messaging, often spread under coordinated campaigns aimed at deceiving voters. In some countries, non-profits also used advertising to support affiliated parties, creating confusion as to the true source of the messaging. The EU has also ramped up efforts to change rules around political ads to increase transparency and restrict targeting; the effectiveness of the new regulation will become clearer once fully implemented.
