As the crisis in Spain’s semi-autonomous Catalonia shot to the front pages of media outlets in the fall of 2017, many untrue stories, images and narratives started circulating on social networks. Internet users both for and against Catalan independence took part in distributing content to boost their own ideological positions. Texts that seemed like news […]

The recent political crisis in Catalonia brought the issue of “fake news” to the forefront in Spain. While the central government has looked for ways to address the spread of disinformation via legislation, journalists concerned about the implications of new laws on freedom of expression have called for a campaign to promote media literacy instead. […]

With many traditional media facing difficult financial challenges, the task of tackling misinformation and “fake news” has increasingly fallen to independent fact-checking initiatives and start-ups. In Austria, a new initiative called Addendum has thrown its hat into the ring. Addendum, which produces a television feature (“In Context” on the private broadcaster ServusTV) as well as […]

Austria has dealt with its fair share of disinformation and accusations of “fake news” amid two recent, highly divisive elections: a presidential election in 2016 and parliamentary elections in October 2017, both notable for the successes of traditional outlier parties. The former saw the triumph of the former head of the Green party, while the […]