About this session
Disinformation and hate targeting LGBTQ people appear to be on the rise after decades of gains for LGBTQ visibility and rights in many countries. Anti-LGBTQ disinformation relies not only on false information but also on existing negative narratives and prejudices, including patterns of discrimination. It is often politically motivated, at times overlapping with foreign information manipulation and interference, and aims to sharpen societal divisions, silence those who do not comply with gender norms, while posing a possible threat to their health and safety. Negative narratives about LGBTQ persons and their communities legitimize technology-facilitated and at times physical violence against them.
The third module of EDMO’s training series on identity-based disinformation aims to provide an overview of some of the main trends, narratives and techniques used by disinformation actors and networks when targeting LGBTQ individuals and groups.
The training module will open with an overview of some of the main findings from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) Investigation – Five-year overview of the online and offline anti-LGBTQ+ landscape in Europe, with a focus on disinformation, including coordinated disinformation campaigns, the rollback of digital protections, and systematic erasure from AI training data and moderation.
The training will then deep-dive into two case studies presented by EDMO Hubs, illustrating different facets of anti-LGBTQ disinformation in Europe. The first examines disinformation about LGBTQ groups in Hungary, presented by HDMO. The second focuses on people’s knowledge and experiences regarding LGBTQ issues in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, through quantitative data from opinion polls gathered by CEDMO in both countries. The data highlight several challenges related to homophobia, particularly the spread of false claims about the LGBTQ community.
In the final part of the training module, drawing from its newly released 2026 Social Media Safety Index, US-based LGBTQ NGO GLAAD will present insights on the intersection of anti-LGBTQ disinformation and hate, and offer platform recommendations for mitigating anti-LGBTQ and anti-transgender disinformation.
Meet your Trainers
Guy Fiennes is a Junior Analyst at ISD UK. He is multilingual and a MENA specialist. His has contributed to a range of investigations at ISD, with interests in Islamist extremism, anti-LGBTQ+ hate and disinformation, Russian and Iranian information operations, far-right extremism and Iran’s regional proxy network.
Head of Programmes, Head of the Radicalisation and Extremism Programme Bulcsú’s core research interests focus on far-right actors, tactics, narratives and networks, as well as international illiberal-authoritarian networking and influence-building. He has also been involved in research into the illiberal transformation of the Hungarian political system, Russian influence, disinformation and Hungarian domestic politics. He has led or participated in many of Political Capital’s research projects.
Ivan Ruta Cuker is a sociologist and data analyst at the Central European Digital Media Observatory (CEDMO), which is based at Charles University in Prague. In addressing the threat posed by disinformation, he focuses on social science research aimed at identifying the underlying factors that make people more susceptible to false and misleading messages disseminated publicly. His main focus is climateand environmental disinformation. Within CEDMO he oversees an international project surveying populations of 9 EU countries.
Jenni Olson (she/her/TBD) is Senior Director of the Social Media Safety Program at US-based LGBTQ media advocacy organization, GLAAD. A prominent voice in the field of tech accountability, Jenni leads GLAAD’s work to hold tech companies — including social media platforms and AI companies — accountable, and to secure safe online spaces for LGBTQ people.
Leanna Garfield (she/they) is the Senior Manager of GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Program, where she researches trends in anti-LGBTQ hate, harassment, and disinformation online. Leanna comes to GLAAD from Access Now, a global digital rights nonprofit working toward more free and open internet. Her work is grounded in a commitment to platform accountability, freedom of expression, and examining the power dynamics that shape the internet. Their work has been featured in The Washington Post, Fast Company, Tech Policy Press, Axios, and elsewhere.
Target group: Stakeholders in the counter-disinformation and LGBTQ rights communities, journalists and fact‑checkers; digital policy and civic tech practitioners; researchers; civil society organisations; media literacy educators and trainers.
What you will learn in this training session:
- Deepen understanding of the current disinformation narratives, techniques, tactics, actors and networks targeting LGBTQ persons and groups;
- Gain practical insights on what effective responses to disinformation about LGBTQ persons and groups may look like.
Deadline:
Register here by 15 June 2026, at 12:30 CEST