Bug meat and other fake news inundate EU voters – DW – 06/07/2024
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Conspiracy theorists are trying to influence European election campaigns with disinformation and lies. Much of the fabrication comes from Moscow, but plenty is homegrown.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16280962

Conspiracy theorists are trying to influence European election campaigns with disinformation and lies. Much of the fabrication comes from Moscow, but plenty is homegrown.

If media campaigns in more than a dozen European countries were to be believed, the European Union (EU) intends to force citizens to eat insects instead of meat.

The claim has touched nerves, especially in Italy, where variations of it have been revived and splashed across billboards during European elections to pit Brussels against mama’s special sauce.

But consumers of this claim are being fed pure nonsense, an example of countless fabrications launched or adopted by candidates seeking political gain at the cost of the truth.

The fake insect-food narrative, which first surfaced last year in a number of EU countries, has proven so popular with malign actors both within and outside the bloc that they’ve brought it back for the European election cycle to try to discredit pro-EU candidates.

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But no one should be surprised that malignant actors want to impact Europe’s election cycle, with 720 seats up for grabs for the next five-year term in the European Parliament and many national elections taking place simultaneously as part of a record year for elections worldwide.

The EDMO reports a record-high amount of disinformation ahead of the vote about universally controversial issues like migration, agricultural policy and climate change, including even the resurrection of fake stories from years past, such as COVID-19 conspiracies.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    But consumers of this claim are being fed pure nonsense, an example of countless fabrications launched or adopted by candidates seeking political gain at the cost of the truth.

    The fake insect-food narrative, which first surfaced last year in a number of EU countries, has proven so popular with malign actors both within and outside the bloc that they’ve brought it back for the European election cycle to try to discredit pro-EU candidates.

    The EDMO reports a record-high amount of disinformation ahead of the vote about universally controversial issues like migration, agricultural policy and climate change, including even the resurrection of fake stories from years past, such as COVID-19 conspiracies.

    Russia’s war in Ukraine has included information campaigns against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally, which DW’s Fact Check unit has documented and debunked.

    “For the current Kremlin leadership, this is an existential battle, and they clearly are trying to win it, not as much on the frontline as much as targeting the support from the West,” explained Janis Sarts, director of NATO’s Strategic Communications Center of Excellence in Riga.

    Former Latvian Deputy Prime Minister and EU lawmaker Artis Pabriks says people should not underestimate the European Parliament as an attractive target for political interference.

    The original article contains 745 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!