In preparation of the elections to the European Parliament taking place 23-26 May 2019 and as partner of the EU campaign ThisTimeImVoting, AGE participated in the European Elections Partner Seminar on “Addressing disinformation ahead of the elections” on 30 April at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Disinformation refers to twisted or completely false information that aims to earn money, is distributed to achieve a certain political objective or is used as a business model. Underlying narratives such as “the EU is too big a bureaucracy” are feeding into twisted information or disinformation.
In addition to providing information about what the European Union does to combat disinformation and a workshop for participants to translate theory into practice, several useful websites about disinformation were mentioned. These can be of interest to AGE members in their preparations for the European Parliament elections, as well as to a general public interested in addressing disinformation:
- What can you do: Website that provides some tools on how to spot disinformation (Author: European External Action Service East Stratcom Task Force)
- Euromyths: Website listing myths specifically about the EU and what are the facts behind these myths (Author: European Commission)
- What Europe does for me: Website providing examples of what the EU does in my region, in my life (e.g. my job, my health) or on big topics such as consumer protection (Author: European Parliament)
- Debunking handbook: handbook compiled by Australian researchers on how to best debunk a myth. For example, it’s important to replace a myth with a fact to ensure people will not continue to believe in a myth.
For more information on this event, please contact Vera Hoerman, vera.hoermann@age-platform.eu
