THE WAR IN UKRAINE AND IMMIGRATION ARE THE MOST TARGETED TOPICS IN FEBRUARY
The 32 organizations* part of the EDMO fact-checking network that contributed to this brief published a total of 1.253 fact-checking articles in February 2026. Out of these articles, 106 (8%) focused on Ukraine-related disinformation; 75 (6%) on disinformation related to immigration; 49 (4%) on disinformation related to the EU; 40 (3%) on climate change-related disinformation; 28 (2%) on disinformation about LGBTQ+ and gender issues; 23 (2%) on COVID-19-related disinformation; and 11 (1%) on the crisis in Gaza.
During the month of February, false news related to the war in Ukraine increased by two percentage points. This made it the most targeted topic by disinformation, shortly followed by the false news on immigration, that slightly increased compared to January. Meanwhile, disinformation targeting the EU decreased by three percentage points.
The share of disinformation on the other topics monitored by these briefs remained stable, with only minor fluctuations.
THE WINTER OLYMPICS: AN OCCASION TO SPREAD ANTI-UKRANIAN DISINFORMATION
Four years after Russia’s invasion, the war in Ukraine is still a constant target of pro-Russian disinformation actors in Europe. The Winter Olympics of Milan-Cortina, from which Russia was excluded, were used as an occasion to spread false news on Ukrainian athletes. False claims circulated that the Ukrainian delegation was housed separately from other participants, and that many athletes did not return back to Ukraine after the games. Artificial intelligence (AI) was extensively employed to create disinformation, with false images and videos of athletes as well as the impersonation of trusted European news outlets.
Throughout Europe, disinformation actors also spread classic anti-Ukrainian narratives, alleging that Ukrainian refugees are responsible for the recent train crash in Spain or for setting an apartment on fire in Poland. In various countries, unfounded news circulated that a teenager in Ukraine attended several funeral ceremonies, allegedly proving he is a so-called “crisis actor”. AI was also used to spread similar recurrent narratives, with claims about purported pro-Russian protests in Ukrainian cities or Ukrainian soldiers allegedly surrendering to Russian forces.
THE SHARE OF AI-GENERATED DISINFORMATION STAYS HIGH
The share of disinformation content created or manipulated with AI has decreased by three percentage points compared to the month of January. However, the number of such content remains high. Out of 1.253 fact-checking articles, 211 focused on such content, representing 17% of the total.
As mentioned in slide n.X and n.X, AI has been extensively used to generate false content on Ukrainian athletes at the Winter Olympics as well as political leaders and celebrities allegedly involved in the Epstein case. Another prominent (and recurrent) use of AI was the generation of anti-immigration content, such as a video of “immigrant schoolchildren” harassing a teacher in France, as well as sensationalist content, such as a video of humanoid robots carrying automatic weapons at a military training in China.
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