DISINFORMATION ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE HALVES, WHILE FALSE STORIES
ABOUT UKRAINE AND COVID-19 INCREASE SLIGHTLY
The 31 organizations part of the EDMO fact-checking network that contributed to this brief published a total
of 1.481 fact-checking articles in December 2024. Out of these articles, 130 (9%) focused on Ukraine-related
disinformation; 87 (6%) on climate change-related disinformation; 83 (5%) on disinformation related to the
EU; 22 (1%) on the Middle Eastern regional conflict; 75 (6%) on COVID-19-related disinformation; 52 (3%) on
disinformation related to immigration; and 35 (2%) on disinformation about LGBTQ+ and gender issues
The percentage of disinformation related to the war in Ukraine increased slightly, as did false stories on COVID-19
related issues. The shares of false information about the other constantly monitored topics remained almost stable.
AI-GENERATED DISINFORMATION
The percentage of disinformation stories using AI-generated content slightly increased in December. Out of
1.481 fact-checking articles, 72 addressed the use of this technology in disinformation, representing 5% of the
total. The values in previous months highlight a fluctuating trend for this disinformation technique, but always
relatively low
Aside from the already mentioned cases about Syria, false stories involving AI-generated
content concerned the alleged intimacy between the current German Chancellor and
Ukraine president Zelensky, a fight between Austrian politicians, and people walking in
the Thessaloniki metro tunnel. The release by X of Grok, an image-generation model
without restrictions, has been used to flood the platform with hyper-realistic AI-generated
images, also to spread racism.
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