QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF MONITORED TOPICS
The 35 organisations that are part of the EDMO fact-checking network in the European Union and Norway, and
that contributed to this report, published a total of 1,525 fact-checking articles in September 2026. Of these articles, 218 (14%) focused on disinformation cases related to immigration; 133 (9%) on Ukraine-related disinformation; 130 (9%) on health-related disinformation (excluding COVID-19); 82 (5%) on disinformation cases related to the EU; 54 (4%) on climate change-related disinformation; 24 (2%) on COVID-19-related disinformation; 18 (1%) on the crisis in Palestine; 17 (1%) on the war between Israel/USA and Iran; and 11 (1%) on disinformation about
LGBTQ+ and gender issues.
The share of false news about immigration remains well above the levels typically observed in the past, despite an eight-percentage-point decrease compared to August. Disinformation on the war in Ukraine is widespread, and it increased by one percentage point compared to the previous month. The share of false news on health and the war between Israel/USA increased respectively by two and one percentage points. The EU is still a constant target of disinformation, although the share of false news on the topic decreased by once percentage point. Disinformation on climate change and Covid-19 dropped by two percentage points.The share of disinformation on the other topics monitored by these briefs remained stable, with only minor
fluctuations.
AI-GENERATED DISINFORMATION QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS IN THE EU
After the drop recorded in May, the share of disinformation created or manipulated using AI has increased
again by four percentage points. Out of 1.361 fact-checking articles, 210 focused on this type of content,
representing 15% of the total.
In September, disinformation targeting the war in Ukraine was generated and spread also with the use
of AI. In many European countries AI images and videos of Ukrainians being forcibly recruited became
viral (see slide n.4), while antisemitic content circulated purportedly showed two Orthodox Jewish men
not being drafted. False news on immigration and islamophobic claims were also fueled by AI, i.e.
fabricated content showing a large crowd of Indians arriving at Zagreb Airport in Croatia and a false
image portraying a fully-veiled woman accompanying Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince during his recent
state visit in France. Throughout the month, AI-generated content, likely shared for monetization
purposes, also included false videos of the floods in Nepal and Tibet as well as the eruption of volcano
Anak Krakatau in Indonesia. Lastly, the use of AI in disinformation targeted politics and politicians,
current and former: a viral image showed Italian PM Giorgia Meloni wearing a Palestinian flag at the
UN General Assembly (also circulated outside of the EU, in Turkey), while another one showed former
socialist French president François Mitterrand alongside a Nazi official at a dinner.
DISINFORMATION NARRATIVES’ ANALYSIS:
1) FIFA MEN’S WORLD CUP 2026 USED TO SPREAD RACIST, SEXIST AND POLITICAL
DISINFORMATION
As the FIFA Men’s World Cup began on June 11, disinformation actors started leveraging the international
resonance of the competition to spread false news. As mentioned in slide n.8, AI was widely used to create (andmonetise) sexualised videos and images of women in the stadiums, but also to alter the words of match
commentators, inserting racist remarks. The LGBTQ+ community was also targeted by disinformation surrounding the World Cup, with claims that the captain of the Croatian national team, Luka Modrić, would not wear a rainbowcolored armband at the tournament (a similar story circulated in Serbia, featuring tennis player Novak Djokovic at the French Open).
Politics also became a frequent theme in false stories surrounding the football tournament and its participants. Posts appeared online claiming that the Polish flag was featured on the Haiti national football team’s jerseys
to honour the Polish Legions’ participation in the Haitian Revolution. Swedish football player Lucas Bergvall was the subject of a highly political story linked to the Great Replacement theory, as false news circulated that he invited “every woman who has a crush on me to stop voting for mass migration, or my people will not
exist anymore.” The captain of the French team Kylian Mbappé also featured in a false story likely spread by pro-Russian disinformation, according to which he revealed to have left PSG for Real Madrid because of French President Emmanuel Macron.
2) THE HEATWAVE FUELS CLIMATE DENIALIST DISINFORMATION
As is often the case in the summer months and after extreme weather events, climate-related disinformation andclimate change denialist claims spread on social media throughout the EU. One of the most viral claims is an evergreen and it involves the comparison of two weather forecast maps of Europe across different time periods to suggest global warming is a scam: according to this narrative, which was also fueled by AI-generated content, the current “mainstream” media spreads overly dramatic reports and fabricates heat-related deaths. Another climate change denialist story was also shared by US President Donald Trump, claiming that even the UN admitted its own errors in climate change projections.
As the heatwave swept across Europe, false content was shared claiming to show its effects: e.g. traffic lights on the streets of Germany and Italy melted due to the heat. Meanwhile, such a disinformation environment contributed to the spread of false news on renewable energy, e.g. the construction of solar power plants is more harmful to the environment than coal-fired power stations.
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