Fake news on the rise as the European elections draw near
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the capturing of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico and new EU anti-money laundering guidelines have all been the goal of misinformation just lately.
Forward of the European elections between 6 and 9 June, EU leaders and the European Union itself are more and more discovering themselves because the targets of misinformation campaigns.
Whether or not it’s an try and discredit political rivals or claims about EU laws, social media is rife with false narratives.
One such instance stems from the dramatic capturing of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, which has prompted swathes of politically-motivated misinformation on-line.
Social media customers are claiming that this image reveals Fico’s alleged attacker alongside Martin Šimečka, the daddy of the chief of the opposition celebration Progressive Slovakia.
Slovakian media has recognized the alleged shooter as self-described author Juraj Cintula.
Nonetheless, the image within the submit doesn’t present Cintula and Šimečka collectively. In reality, the second man within the image isn’t Šimečka in any respect, and the picture itself comes from one among Cintula’s e book launches in 2019.
Fb itself has now labelled the submit as false data.
The tried false affiliation of the assault on Fico together with his political rivals stays significantly harmful forward of the European elections.
Is Donald Tusk ashamed of his Polish identification?
Throughout the border in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been accused of attacking the notion of Polishness as an identification.
An image posted on TikTok claims that Tusk known as Polishness ‘an abnormality’ that involves him ‘with painful persistence’. Nonetheless, that is deceptive.
The prime minister did state these phrases, however they arrive from an article he wrote over 40 years in the past.
In response to Polish fact-checkers, Tusk’s article critically discusses Poles’ attitudes to actuality earlier than confirming that he identifies together with his personal Polishness, at a time when Poland was a communist satellite tv for pc of the Soviet Union.
“Regardless of its oppressive heritage it stays our widespread acutely aware selection,” he stated.
As a strongly pro-EU prime minister who beforehand served as president of the European Council, Tusk is a vital goal for misinformation mere weeks earlier than the elections.
Is the EU banning money funds of over €100,000?
Typically, it’s the EU itself that’s underneath assault from these spreading false narratives.
Some social media customers say the bloc has prohibited all money funds over €100,000.
That is partly true: the EU has authorized guidelines limiting money transactions to €100,000 as a part of a raft of recent anti-money laundering measures, however these restrictions don’t apply to all transactions.
Particularly, there’s a restrict on skilled merchants barring them from accepting or paying money over €100,000.
Transfers between personal people in a non-professional context are excluded.
Forward of the European elections, it’s essential that information is shared precisely and pretty, in order that the voters can vote with the right data at hand.