Below is a collection of resources and initiatives developed by the EDMO network together with its 14 EDMO Hubs to navigate the considerable wave of disinformation spreading on the Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October 2023. The page will be periodically updated with new resources.
Countries covered: Croatia, Slovenia
ADMO has established a dedicated section for fact-checking related to the Israeli-Hamas conflict, available in the Croatian language.
ADMO partner, N1 television, has been actively contributing by publishing news and reports pertaining to the Israeli-Hamas conflict. For comprehensive updates and information, please visit their website at N1 Television – N1(DIS)INFO show. Furthermore, N1 hosted Agence France-Presse fact-checker Ivan Fischer and researcher Milica Vučković as guest speakers, offering valuable insights into the subject matter.
ADMO is in the process of conducting a survey on disinformation and conspiracy theories in Croatia in mid-November, which will be extended to include questions addressing the Israeli-Hamas conflict. This expansion will encompass topics associated with disinformation and conspiracy theories connected to the conflict.
Countries covered: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
BECID’s reaction to the reignited conflict has been twofold, focusing on 1) monitoring and reacting to content in local languages that needs to be checked such as fact-checked here, here, here and here ; 2) providing materials and training to stakeholders. A podcast episode, with the director of the International Centre for Defence and Security – Indrek Kanni was released. It informs the public on how to analyse content on the go, keeping in mind the historical roots of the conflict. In Latvia, there has been one prominent narrative regarding humanitarian aid, fact-checked by Re:Baltica here. Fact-checkers and journalists remain vigilant in their monitoring, but so far, not much disinformation that is specific to Latvia has been spread. In Lithuania, several fact-checks have been published 1. here 2. here , 3. here, 4. here, 5. here, 6. here, 7. here in Lithuanian language and a few in Russian language as well 1. here, 2. here, 3. here regarding material that has also spread in other languages. While the disinformation about the Israel-Hamas war in Lithuania is not very fact-checkable (rather opinions or posts with very few views that would therefore be amplified by fact-checking), anti-Semitic hate speech is a worry. BECID Lithuanian partners will continue to collect information and case studies and are ready to publish a wider analysis if needed.
As for education, experts from BECID will host a Zoominar this November, titled ‘Helping Children Navigate the Tsunami of Misinformation’, tailored especially for educators. Attendees will benefit from the combined insights of mental health experts and law enforcement professionals, to be more confident in addressing community crises, misinformation, and sensitive topics in the classroom setting. The Zoominar, to be conducted in a well-established multi-lingual format will provide materials for participants as well as other stakeholders (previous example here). BECID is prepared to organise more similar trainings as the conflict progresses, alongside with the spread of disinformative and vexing content.
Countries covered: Belgium and Netherlands
BENEDMO has developed a tool to generate fact-checked content databases allowing for cross-lingual semantic search. The tool can be used to launch queries by keywords and find fact-checked content related to the conflict. The tool is in the process of being finalized. BENEDMO makes use of this tool to list all fact checks on the Israel/Hamas conflict published by its fact-check partners. The overview can be consulted here and will be updated regularly. Additionally, the BENEDMO hub has produced a handbook with evidence-based recommendations for fact-checking in times of crisis. Bellingcat has written a short guide on how to separate fact from fiction in times of conflict, aimed at the general public. The in-depth analysis from Bellingcat can be found here.
Countries covered: Bulgaria and Romania
BROD’s fact-checking partners are at work to debunk false news on the Israel-Hamas conflict, along with the subsequent humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israeli military operations in the West Bank. The Hub is also conducting a deeper analysis of disinformation narratives disseminated in Bulgaria around the conflict.
Countries covered: Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland
CEDMO has set up a dedicated section of the homepage to feature fact-checking articles and analysis related to the conflict (click to read related fact-checks in Czech, Slovak and Polish).
Country covered: France
DE FACTO has developed a special section of the homepage collecting all fact-checking articles related to the conflict. Additionally, DE FACTO’s partner Agence France-Presse has produced an investigation on the main narrative circulating on the Israel- Hamas conflict. In order to deal with these issues at school, CLEMI has collected resources and trainings for teachers and Media and Information Literacy practitioners.
Countries covered: Belgium and Luxembourg
EDMO Belux developed a special section of the homepage collecting all fact-checks on the conflict (click to read related fact-checks in French, German, Luxemburgish and Dutch) . Additionally, the hub media literacy partners have developed several resources to support teachers and educators in critically assessing news about conflicts (e.g. here, here and here) as well as parents on how to talk to young people about the violence in the news (here). In the context of their News in the Classroom project, a thematic section of educational material related to the conflict has been developed.
Countries covered: Austria and Germany
GADMO has set up a dedicated section of the homepage featuring fact-checking articles related to the conflict.
Country covered: Hungary
HDMO’s fact-checking partners are working to detect and analyse disinformation around the conflict (e.g. here, here and here). Additionally, HDMO’s partner lakmusz.hu published several articles with tips on how to navigate the disinformation wave around the conflict (e.g. here and here) and advice for conscious consumption and sharing of war-related content likely to trigger strong emotional reactions (here).
Countries covered: Spain and Portugal
The work of IBERIFER’s fact-checking partners in Spain and Portugal has focused on the conflict since it began on October 7. To date, dozens of pieces of disinformation have already been debunked (e.g. of compilations of verifications here, here and here). The effort is not limited to debunking disinformation. In especially controversial cases such as the explosion at the Al-Alhi Arab hospital in Gaza, work has also been done to compile reliable information and make it available to the public (e.g. here). In some cases, a translation was made into English to expand the scope of the piece of information (e.g. here).
Country covered: Italy
IDMO’s partner NewsGuard has established a Tracking Center for disinformation and misinformation around the Israel-Hamas War. It collects main false narratives detected and provides related debunking and analyses.
Countries covered: Greece, Cyprus, Malta
MedDMO has developed a dedicated section collecting all fact-checks related to the conflict. Click here if you wish to read related-fact checks in Greek
Countries covered: Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland
NORDIS fact-checking partner Faktisk.no is working with a team of representatives from several Norwegian media companies to detect and verify false narratives around the conflict including audiovisual content purporting to represent events connected to the Israel/Gaza conflict.