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EU with a side of insects: A delicious treat for disinformers

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EU with a side of insects: A delicious treat for disinformers

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After the EU approved in January 2023 some products derived from insects for human consumption, a wave of disinformation hit many member States, mostly spreading unjustified panic and accusing Bruxelles of the vilest plots.

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An analysis of the EDMO fact-checking network. Organizations that contributed to this analysis: Pagella Politica/Facta news; 15min; AFP; Correctiv; Delfi; Demagog; DPA; EFE Verifica; Faktabaari; Faktisk; Knack; Lakmusz; Newtral; Re:Baltica; Eesti Päevaleht; The Journal - FactCheck; TjekDet; Wojownicy Klawiatury.
Insects are delicious treats for actors with an interest in spreading disinformation against the European Union. After the EU approved in January 2023 some products derived from insects for human consumption, a wave of disinformation hit many member States, mostly spreading unjustified panic and accusing Bruxelles of the vilest plots.

This cooperative investigation analyzes the main disinformation narratives conveyed by the many false news stories detected by organizations of EDMO's fact-checking network. Moreover it analyzes how, in some EU countries, traditional media and politicians contributed to the spreading of false news and narratives.
Main narratives
Three main disinformation narratives conveyed by the detected false news about the EU and edible insects can be identified: the first one, and probably the most viral, maintains that EU citizens will eat insects even against their will, because insects will be hidden inside products without proper labeling; the second one, related to the first one in some conspiracy theories, is about insects being poisonous and not fit for human consumption; the third one - spread especially in the Baltic states - is linked to disinformation about to the war in Ukraine, and claims that EU citizens are forced to eat insects because they don't have enough food, as a consequence of the war and sanctions against Russia.

1. EU is forcing its citizens to eat insects, even if they don't want to
All the fact-checking organizations that contributed to this investigation detected false news in their respective countries about the risk that the insects will be hidden inside products, and EU citizens will eat them inadvertently.

In Germany, for example, detected false news claims the absence of labeling requirements for possible allergic reactions, or labeling only using Latin names, leaving people unaware of the actual ingredients, such as "house crickets". Similar false news were detected in France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belgium, Finland and Norway.

A widespread variation in this disinformation narrative - often combined with conspiracy theories - is that insects are already hidden inside products that are sold inside the EU. For example, the presence of proteins among the nutritional values of some products (e.g. flour) was presented as evidence of the use of insects as an ingredient. Or a false news story circulated that some additives (e.g. E120 and E904) listed among the ingredients for some products are actually names for insect derivatives.

Finally, the false news claiming that schoolchildren in the Netherlands are already forced to eat "earthworms" to fight "global warming" was detected in many EU countries.

2. Insects are poisonous
The second disinformation narrative claims that insects are poisonous and not fit for human consumption. This narrative is sometimes linked to the first one in conspiracy theories about global depopulation.

The main false news stories conveying this narrative are about insects containing chitin and ecdysterone, substances presented as poisonous for humans. In reality, both elements are not dangerous and can be consumed without health risks.

Other false news, sometimes in connection with chitine, claims that eating insects can cause cancer. This allegation is baseless.

3. EU is forced to resort to insects because of the dramatic consequences of the sanctions imposed to Russia / of the war in Ukraine
In the Baltic states, pro-Russia disinformation jumped on the topic of EU/insects and spread false news connecting the topic to the consequences of the war and the European sanctions.For example in Lithuania the claimcirculated, in Russian, that the entire crop of agricultural products was lost in the EU, and therefore European authorities are considering insects as a new food source (Russian television discussed the issue recently, with an angle about the alleged decadence of the West). In Estonia the false news about insects hidden in food has been detected in connection with Russian propaganda showing how the EU will not survive without Russian resources.

The role of traditional media and politicians in Italy and France
According to the experience of fact-checking organizations, in the vast majority of EU member states this kind of disinformation went viral mostly on social media, among conspiracy theorists, in fringe and niches of the public opinion. Nonetheless, in at least two countries, disinformation was spread also by political actors of national relevance and by traditional media.

In Italy, many politicians from the Lega - Matteo Salvini's nationalist euro-skeptic right-wing party, that currently supports Giorgia Meloni's government - claimed recently (as happened also in previous years) that the EU intended to "impose" insect consumption to EU citizens, or that EU bureaucrats "insist to replace" meat with insects, or that the EU " wants us to eat insects", or, again, that there will be " the risk to find insects in the products we buy without knowing it ".

National televisions spread similar misleading or false information about the EU "wanting us to eat insects". This claim appeared (and was also the title of a specific segment) during an episode of the TV program "Fuori dal coro", on the private TV network Mediaset, at the end of January 2023. Even before this episode, the misleading claim circulated on the public television RAI: in May 2021 for example, during the program "Anni 20" (min. 53.40) on RAI2, it was claimed on air - among other things - that "EU asks us to eat insects". The program was much criticized for this episode, but Giorgia Meloni (back then a leader of an opposition party) wrote on Twitter it was "sarcasm" and those who criticized it were trying to "transform us into North Korea".

AFP has reported that the topic has also reached the French political sphere. Politicians from the right and far-right as well as " Frexiteers " have been very critical towards the EU and the European Commission - and specifically its president Ursula Von der Leyen - about the topic of edible insects, spreading occasionally some of the false claims listed above.

When disinformation pours out of the social media bubbles of conspiracy theorists and well-known disinformers, and becomes a topic for polarization in the political landscape with echoes in the traditional media, its consequences are much bigger, as reported by EDMO investigations during the pandemic.
Conclusion
The EU decision to approve some products derived from insects for human consumption, in January 2023, caused a wave of disinformation all over the Union. In many member states, false news appeared about insects hidden in food, or about insects being dangerous for human consumption. In some Eastern European countries, Russian propaganda exploited the ongoing disinformation to establish a link to an existing narrative that exaggerates the negative consequences of the war in Ukraine and of sanctions on European lifestyle.

In some EU countries, disinformation about the EU and insects was also spread by politicians, as was the case in France and Italy. In the latter, it was reported that some traditional media, such as national television channels, both private and public, spread disinformation on the topic.
Tommaso Canetta

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EU with a side of insects: A delicious treat for disinformers

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Insects are delicious treats for actors with an interest in spreading disinformation against the European Union. After the EU approved in January 2023 some products derived from insects for human consumption, a wave of disinformation hit many member States, mostly spreading unjustified panic and acc

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A roundup of some of the narratives around which false or misleading claims are circulating on social media and other channels

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Debunked claims about maks being ineffective

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Debunked claims about maks being ineffective

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Debunked: Recent studies indicate masks can be effective at preventing the spread of disease

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The Journal Fact Check Newsletter - Fake news history repeating itself

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The Journal Fact Check Newsletter - Fake news history repeating itself

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Rumours and false claims about migrants circulating on social media and messaging platforms are being widely shared.

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FactCheck newsletter: Despite Covid's lessons about fake news, history is now repeating itself

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Leaflets distributed in Dublin are a hoax

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Leaflets distributed in Dublin are a hoax

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Debunked: Deceptive leaflet distributed in Dublin telling 'girls to stay indoors' is a hoax

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Buses were not dropping migrants in Santry

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Buses were not dropping migrants in Santry

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Debunked: Buses in Santry were not a 'migrant convoy', but were dropping children to athletics

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Check out the list of Fact-Checkers on our Evaluating Information Board to find more organisations that carry out fact-checking and debunking work.

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Exposed: Media clones serving Russian propaganda

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Exposed: Media clones serving Russian propaganda

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Sept 2022: EU DisinfoLab exposes a Russia-based influence operation network that has been operating in Europe since at least May 2022 and is still ongoing. Doppelganger, the name we gave to this campaign, uses multiple “clones” of authentic media and targets users with fake articles, videos and polls. To do so, the malicious actors behind it bought dozens of Internet domain names similar to the ones of authentic media and copied their designs.

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By Alexandre Alaphilippe, Gary Machado, Raquel Miguel and Francesco Poldi, EU DisinfoLab. In partnership with Qurium.

Today, EU DisinfoLab exposes a Russia-based influence operation network that has been operating in Europe since at least May 2022 and is still ongoing. Doppelganger, the name we gave to this campaign, uses multiple "clones" of authentic media (at least 17 media providers, including, Bild, 20minutes, Ansa, The Guardian or RBC Ukraine) and targets users with fake articles, videos and polls. To do so, the malicious actors behind it bought dozens of Internet domain names similar to the ones of authentic media and copied their designs.

This is yet another example of a cross-platform operation, with its core hosted on web pages, and amplification profiles across social media networks, including Facebook and Twitter. The operation makes use of different formats, from videos to online ads.

Depicting Ukraine as a failed, corrupt, and Nazi state. Promoting Kremlin narratives on the Ukraine war such as denying the Bucha massacre. Fearmongering Germans, Italians, French, Latvians and British citizens about how sanctions against Russia will ruin their lives. These are the main objectives of the campaign that has been running online from May 2022 and is still ongoing.

EU DisinfoLab has partnered with the Swedish non-profit foundation Qurium Media Foundation, a provider of digital security solutions and forensics investigations to independent media and human rights organisations. You can find the technical report by Qurium here.

This independent investigation is solely based on open-source information and was built on initial leads published by other organisations (notably reports from T-Online and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung). Tools used to unravel and analyse the network have included the Meta Ads Library, CrowdTangle and publicly available Internet infrastructure data. This research started on 30 August and was triggered after the initial publication of T-Online, which uncovered part of this network.

This coordinated operation consists of cloning the appearance and credit of authentic journalistic content to disseminate blatant disinformation. Our findings show that disinformation actors behind this campaign have implemented a sophisticated and coherent strategy of replicating and impersonating authentic media. It involves, amongst other tactics, spoofing domain names or creating videos falsely attributed to legitimate media. It also includes clever techniques such as smart redirections or geo-blocking users based on location. According to our partner Qurium, the sophisticated features of at least part of this campaign were enabled by a software of a company named Keitaro, registered in Estonia.

After these findings, EU DisinfoLab has taken the appropriate steps to alert relevant authorities and institutions of this operation.

We found distinct networks of various Facebook Pages and fake Facebook profiles actively amplifying this
operation. These networks were operated subsequently while the operation was unfolding. Once used, most of these networks were abandoned by their owners, similarly to the use of burner accounts.

Our investigation does not lead to a formal attribution to a specific actor. However, many elements are
pointing towards the involvement of Russia-based actors. On the infrastructure side, impersonated domain names were operated by the same actor, and some of these domains were bought through the Russian Internet registrar. Fake videos were produced by computers with a Russian set-up, one of them operating from the GMT+8 time zone. Moreover, the narratives of the campaign are all aligned with Russian propaganda.

However, Doppelganger operators remain unidentified and therefore a continuing threat. Despite the work of our teams and corroborating signals both in the infrastructure and in the operation's content, we are unable to make a conclusive and specific attribution. For these reasons, we cannot entirely exclude the possibility of a false flag operation. We hope that the elements we bring to the community will help future work towards a more formal attribution.

This calls for a series of European actions such as:

A better regulation of the domain name industry, to protect authentic actors from being impersonated;

Taking appropriate measures so that EU-based legally registered software and infrastructure cannot be used to serve malicious covert influence operations without consequences;

Putting an end to the non-accountability of opaque and ill-intentioned organisations. This calls for far greater cooperation between institutions that can attribute information operations and those that enforce laws such as trademark laws and GDPR;

To provide better data to European researchers working for the public interest.

"The publicly available data raises doubts about the success of Doppelganger. But the very fact that the operation is still ongoing after months of breaching European trademark laws, GDPR, using EU-based servers and software, likely without consequences for its authors, is troubling. This is where much improvement needs to happen," said Alexandre Alaphilippe, Executive Director at EU DisinfoLab.

Check our #Doppelganger Twitter thread

#DOPPELGANGER: How Russia-based actors cloned legitimate media outlets from multiple countries (🇩🇪🇬🇧🇫🇷🇮🇹🇱🇻🇺🇦) to spread disinformation designed to undermine the support for Ukraine.

Our last investigation: https://t.co/yaeAEBHdWY
- EU DisinfoLab (@DisinfoEU) September 27, 2022

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Doppelganger - Media clones serving Russian propaganda - EU DisinfoLab

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By Alexandre Alaphilippe, Gary Machado, Raquel Miguel and Francesco Poldi, EU DisinfoLab. In partnership with Qurium. Today, EU DisinfoLab exposes a Russia-based influence operation network that has been operating in Europe since at least May 2022 and is still ongoing.

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The EU Commission does not use the term Minor-Attracted Persons

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The EU Commission does not use the term Minor-Attracted Persons

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FactCheck: The European Commission doesn't use the term 'minor-attracted person' instead of 'paedophile'

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https://edmo.eu/fact-checking-briefs/
EDMO’s Fact-checking Briefs provide an overview of the disinformation narratives with highest circulations in the month previous to publication.

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Disinformation detected on the War in Ukraine

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Disinformation detected on the War in Ukraine

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EDMO publishes regular insights highlighting the main disinformation trends related to the war in Ukraine. They are based on the fact-checking articles provided by members of the EDMO fact-checking network which are collected in a searchable repository available on their website.

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European fact-checkers focused a lot of their efforts in the past days and weeks in detecting and tackling disinformation concerning the situation in Ukraine.

At the beginning of the year, as the crisis was growing in intensity, the spread of false news about Ukraine detected in the EU was still very small. Fact-checkers detected a growth in the first half of February, even if the qualitative and quantitative levels of the disinformation was not alarmingly high.

After the military actions against the whole Ukraine started in the morning of 24 February, though, fact-checkers witnessed the situation changing substantially and the disinformation about the events growing both in quantity and dangerousness.

Periodic Insights and Early Warnings: Disinformation Narratives about the war in Ukraine
EDMO publishes regular insights highlighting the main disinformation trends related to the war in Ukraine. They are based on the fact-checking articles provided by members of the EDMO fact-checking network which are collected in the searchable repository available in the table below.

Here there's a list - which will be periodically updated - of fact-checking articles that the EDMO's fact-checking network have published during the crisis.

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European fact-checkers focused a lot of their efforts in the past days and weeks in detecting and tackling disinformation concerning the situation in Ukraine. At the beginning of the year, as the crisis was growing in intensity, the spread of false news about Ukraine detected in the EU was still very small.

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'100,000 unvetted foreign nationals' did not receive free accommodation in a year

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'100,000 unvetted foreign nationals' did not receive free accommodation in a year

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Debunked: No, '100,000 unvetted foreign nationals' did not receive free accommodation in a year

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Claim that Immigrants are suspects in Fingal Assault Case Debunked

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Claim that Immigrants are suspects in Fingal Assault Case Debunked

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Debunked: No, 'immigrants' are not suspects in a Finglas assault case

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Explainer: What is the difference between 'economic migrants', 'refugees' and 'asylum-seekers'?

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