EU officials are raising the alarm at the increasing sophistication of disinformation campaigns — as tens of millions of European citizens head to the voting booths over the next few days.
With some 360 million people eligible to vote in the European Union, including 26 million first time voters, the issue has taken on a renewed sense of urgency.
"The most problematic moment is actually starting nowadays, the three days, the 72 hours before the elections happen," an EU official told reporters on Wednesday (5 June) in Brussels.
The official warned methods are becoming more sophisticated, spanning techniques that seek to amplify false and misleading statements.
Among those cited is Doppelganger, a Russia-based influence operation network operating in Europe since at least May 2022.
The campaign spoofed domain names and created content falsely attributed to reputable news websites.
Vera Jourova, the EU commissioner for values and transparency, has made similar recent comments.
She said deep fakes have been used in elections last year, noting that disinformation is also being amplified by artificial intelligence, fake accounts, and fake likes. Germany, France, Poland are also faced with barrage of Russian scripted disinformation tailored to each country, she said.
And fact-checkers are also being targeted.
Operation Overlord, first detected by a Finnish software company, sent massive amounts of false information to some 800 fact-checkers in 75 countries.
EU officials say other campaigns aim to undermine people's trust in the voting process, spread false voting instructions, seek to polarise debates and discredit the media.
One conspiracy in Italy suggests that a low voter turnout will trigger an "EU exit" referendum. Posted on Facebook, the false claim then invited people not to vote.
A similar false story surfaced in Germany and Spain claiming EU ballots are invalid because of holes and cut corners.
Another posted in Germany on TikTok and X falsely claimed that multiple voting and marks on the ballots are allowed.
The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany because the country will send 96 MEPs to the legislature, the most of any EU member state.
Other falsehoods are being pushed by politicians, including the Hungarian government, which is set to take over the EU's six month rotating presidency.
Last week, it made the bogus claim that the EU was seeking to introduce mandatory military conscription following comments in a debate in Germany by Manfred Weber, the leader of the European People's Party.
“Manfred Weber has never supported EU-wide compulsory military service. Consequently, he has never brought up the idea, either publicly or at internal forums," said Weber's spokesperson told Hungarian media.
And Weber, in an interview with Der Spiegel this week, described it as fake news.
The EU's digital services (DSA) act requires platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X to combat false and misleading information.
The European Commission, for its part, has since launched infringement cases against X and Meta on potential DSA violations related to election integrity.
Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.
Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.