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On September 27th, Maldita.es Foundation and the University of Granada hosted the event “Disinformation in the EU: 2024-2029: Challenges for a New Term” at the Press Club in Brussels. The event focused on the emerging threats facing the European Union in its fight against disinformation, particularly on messaging platforms. It featured prominent institutional participation from the European Commission and the European Parliament. Additionally, a study on Telegram was presented, which informed the policy document “Telegram Public Channels: Influence, Unmitigated Risks, and Recommendations.”
Jourová: Fact-checkers are key to the EU's fight against disinformation
The event included an interview with Věra Jourová, outgoing Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency. The interview was conducted by Clara Jiménez Cruz, President of the Maldita.es Foundation and the governance body of the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN), during which they discussed achievements and lessons learned in the fight against disinformation over the past term. Jourová urged the incoming Commission to prioritize the effective implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA), as well as to strengthen media literacy, support independent and public media, and bolster fact-checking organisations. She also highlighted the prominent role of Maldita.es Foundation in fighting disinformation and its research efforts.
The event also featured the participation of Delphine Colard, Director of the European Parliament's Spokesperson's Unit, and Filip Grzegorzewski, Head of Information Integrity at the European External Action Service. Both assessed how the European elections fared in terms of disinformation, the cooperation between various institutions, and the plans for the next five years in the fight against Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and disinformation.
The DSA was a central theme in a panel discussion that featured Lubos Kuklis from the European Commission’s enforcement team, who clarified that by the end of the year, more than 200 Commission employees will be working on enforcing the DSA. Stanislav Matejka from Slovakia’s Media Services Council, Krisztina Stump from DG CNECT, and Marisa Jiménez, representing META, also reflected on the challenges of this regulation, progress in discussions on converting the Code of Practice on Disinformation into a Code of Conduct, and the future role of external auditors in evaluating compliance with the Code, which is currently the main obstacle to its conversion.
Another panel focused on the fight against disinformation on messaging apps, with contributions from Tamar Kintsurashvili, Executive Director of the Media Development Foundation, Sayyara Mammadova, Research Associate at the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab, and Inês Narciso, researcher at the University Institute of Lisbon and a member of VOST Europe. Finally, a civil society panel moderated by EFCSN Coordinator Stephan Mündges, and featuring Alexandre Alaphilippe from EU DisinfoLab, Claire Pershan from Mozilla Foundation, Dominika Hadju from GLOBSEC, and Tommaso Canetta from Pagella Politica and the EMDO fact-checking unit, took place.
Research shows that Telegram channels amplify disinformation and build communities around it
During the event, Pablo Hernández, Academic Research Coordinator at Maldita.es, and Juan Romero from the University of Granada, presented the highlights of their joint research on Telegram. They analyzed 95 public Spanish-language channels and over 1.4 million messages to explore the role of Telegram in spreading disinformation. Their findings reveal how certain channels promoting "alternative information" and disinformation are reaching a larger audience than many traditional media outlets. These channels coordinate actions through forwarded messages, maximizing the impact of false and harmful content. As part of this research, they also presented the DOTS tool, which allows for customized searches and analyses within the database, providing a valuable resource for academics, journalists, and policymakers, who can now request access here.
This analysis, conducted by Maldita.es and the University of Granada, underscores the urgent need to improve content moderation on platforms like Telegram. Following these findings, Maldita.es published the public policy document “Telegram Public Channels: Influence, Unmitigated Risks, and Recommendations,” which provides key recommendations for both the platform and authorities responsible for enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA). These recommendations include increasing transparency in content dissemination and holding channel administrators more accountable.
