While 373 million voters are expected to cast their ballots in the European elections this week, a torrent of disinformation is heading their way. Russian disinformation is flooding the continent, using artificial intelligence and falsehoods to sow distrust and discontent.
The European Union is said to want to ban the repair of old cars for drivers. The EU also plans to limit the number of flights by introducing a „carbon passport.” It might even impose a „climate lockdown”, similar to the one during the Covid pandemic.
None of these theories circulating in the EU are true, but as 373 million people are expected to choose a new European Parliament this week, a torrent of disinformation is flooding the continent, writes CNN.
The EU and several member states have established investigative agencies to counter disinformation ahead of the European elections, focusing their efforts on campaigns originating from Russia.
Accusations of Russian disinformation around elections are not new - they have deeply disrupted elections and democratic structures in the US, UK, and EU, and Russia has always denied orchestrating such campaigns. However, its tactics are becoming increasingly sophisticated, spilling over from social media into parliaments and public debate.
Artificial intelligence and deepfakes are rapidly becoming the preferred tools of those seeking to spread false theories, said Morgan Wright, Chief Security Advisor for the American cybersecurity company SentinelOne.
Alongside the EU's independent research group, DisinfoLab, SentinelOne has acted to uncover a network of influence based in Russia, operating in Europe since 2022, named "Doppelgänger."
War and Climate Crisis, Perfect Ramps for False Theories
The network builds cloned websites of well-known European media organizations, including major publications like The Guardian and Bild, as vehicles to spread deceptive and false content.
Emphasis is placed on false stories to influence attitudes on subjects such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. However, in the past year, the climate crisis has been the second most targeted issue, according to the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO).
One such story, published on a site imitating the German newspaper Bild, claimed that a young woman riding a bicycle died on the street after the streetlights were turned off to save energy. The false article stated that the German government decided to turn off the lights due to an energy crisis caused by sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The story was debunked by several German publications but continued to spread on Facebook.
Not coincidentally, Russian trolls then turned to climate disinformation.
Spreading false narratives on this topic aligns with Russia's geopolitical objectives, as the country's lucrative oil and gas sector has been hit by sanctions and import bans by the EU, says Paula Gori, Secretary-General of EDMO.
"It is quite easy for Russians to spread disinformation that the EU is having problems due to sanctions, and European citizens are suffering because there is no gas from Russia," she said.
False stories have also claimed that renewable energy sources have no contribution to the EU's energy security, adds Gori. Official statistics, however, show otherwise: in 2022, renewable sources accounted for 23% of energy consumed in the EU. Some European countries now use more renewable energy than fossil fuels.
DisinfoLab has uncovered other stories falsely claiming that wind turbines generate pollution.
The aim seems to be to sow confusion and division rather than bring about a change in climate policy, said Morgan Wright. "Russia has been very opportunistic. They seek controversy, discord, and any current issues they can exploit. The goal is for people to fight among themselves. They don't care about climate policy," he added.
Russia has another interest in undermining the EU's climate messages. As it seeks to strengthen its relations in the Global South, particularly in Africa and Asia, where it competes with the West for business and influence, Moscow is trying to show that Europe's climate policies exploit poorer countries and hinder them from industrializing, said Gori.
This idea of using disinformation to widen existing divergences is drawn directly from Moscow's old propaganda manual, Wright shows: "If we go back to 1917, to the creation of CEKA, Russia's first intelligence organization, they have been masters of disinformation for the past 100 years. They have used the same tactics for decades; it is the tool that produces change, now it's artificial intelligence and social media."
Why Do Populist Politicians tells "We Will Eat Insects"
Campaigns that start online seep into European parliaments, where populist politicians peddle false stories.
Politicians in France and Italy have spread false information that climate policies to reduce pollution in agriculture will force EU citizens to eat insects. And people in Croatia, Germany, and Poland have been told that English politicians are imposing a "climate lockdown" on citizens and similar restrictions could reach their countries.
These campaigns have real-life consequences, especially on the EU's Green Deal legislation, the bloc's global vision for climate action.
The EU is considered a global leader in combating global warming due to pollution, but climate disinformation could undermine the bloc's ambitious goal of reducing carbon emissions by 90% by 2040 compared to 1990 levels.
This goal is already under threat. The "green wave" that brought many climate-focused politicians to power in the 2019 European elections seems to be ending, and it is predicted that green parties will suffer significant losses this month, meaning fewer progressive voices on climate in the European Parliament.
Other false stories have targeted EU agricultural policies, particularly using farmers' protests that have spread across several EU states this year, including France, Germany, Spain, and Poland.
EDMO experts have found clear evidence of attempts to hijack the protests. For example, a widely shared false story claims that farmers in France and Spain will be dispossessed to make way for solar farms.
Farmers took to the streets for many reasons, but some of the perceived negative effects of proposals for ecological agriculture have prompted the European Union to abandon or dilute several policies. Thus, the EU has scrapped a plan to halve pesticide use by 2030 and postponed new rules on soil health and biodiversity. It has also dropped a requirement to reduce non-carbon greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.
Using the active ferment of protests, Russian trolls' disinformation has achieved its goal. "The protests were legitimate, of course… but they were also used and exploited by Russia to share disinformation that attacks EU institutions and causes polarization," Gori said.
And the range of issues used by Russia's propaganda laboratories is vast. Climate is just the latest in a series of problems that some far-right politicians have targeted to fuel division. Before climate, it was migration, as Pallavi Sethi, a disinformation expert at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, shows.
For example, Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) used the debate on heat pumps. When the coalition government proposed gradually equipping methane gas-operated homes with heat pumps, AfD accused an "ecological dictatorship" and made this issue a key campaign point, despite scientific evidence showing the climate benefits of this heating type.
What Is the EU Doing Against Disinformation and Why It's Not Enough
The EU's response to disinformation has been the Digital Services Act, which specifically targets illegal content, deceptive advertising, and disinformation. The EU has used the new legislation to compel major social media companies to clean up their platforms.
The European Commission recently launched formal proceedings against Facebook and Instagram for disinformation targeting the European elections. And last month, the EU imposed sanctions against Voice of Europe, based in Prague, a site it accused of leading a pro-Russian influence operation.
But these efforts cannot solve what has become a massive problem. Climate Action Against Disinformation, an international coalition of anti-disinformation groups, stated that the response from social media companies and governments has been wholly inadequate.
What happened in Slovakia demonstrates that actions against disinformation are one step behind and once done, the harm cannot always be fully rectified. A false audio recording made with artificial intelligence created the impression that a prominent candidate in Slovakia said he would manipulate parliamentary elections. The recording was released on Facebook just days before a key vote last fall, CNN reports.
In the past, Facebook's policy on community standards only targeted videos, but in April, it was expanded to include audio content.
In Slovakia, however, the damage was already done. The targeted candidate, a pro-Western politician, was defeated by a rival with connections to Moscow.
T.D.