Dutch researchers have revealed that coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation flooded social media in France, Germany and Italy before the elections to the European Parliament.
Elections to the European Parliament are a series of national elections held by European Union (EU) member states to elect members to the European Parliament (MEPs). These elections occur every five years where EU citizens vote for their representatives in the European Parliament, which is the legislative body of the EU. The last edition was held between June 6 – 9, 2024.
The researchers analysed disinformation on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in the four countries and concluded many of the accounts were “cranked up” in the build-up to the election, The Guardian reported.
Trollrensics, a specialist consultancy commissioned by the Dutch Socialist and Democratic parties in the European parliament, noted that the impact of these accounts is increasing at an alarming rate showing a certainty that a large coordinated network of accounts was influencing the EU elections in Germany, France and Italy.
READ: EU probes Meta over election disinformation concerns
Trollrensics specialises in analysing disinformation networks that typically include troll accounts attempting to interfere in a concerted manner to influence public discourse.
The report, titled EU Elections Investigation, said: “The scale of the operation suggests that it [the disinformation network] necessitates significant human resources and time.”
The consultancy firm used specialist software to study 2.3m posts from 468,000 accounts in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. From that dataset, it identified 50,000 accounts that spread disinformation.
In France, they found that out of more than 127,000 posts mentioning Éric Zemmour, founder of the far-right political party Reconquête, 20 per cent originated from disinformation accounts.
In Germany, 10 per cent of posts about Alternative für Deutschland came from these accounts. Trollrensics suggested the actual percentages might be higher in both countries.
It found no organised disinformation networks in the Netherlands and the accounts it studied in Italy were less concerned with the EU elections and more with controversies over migration or vaccination.
The researchers said the scale of disinformation networks meant they could and did “take over an entire debate by just flooding X with posts, reposts, comments and likes”.
Accounts were shown to be “densely connected” and probably run by humans rather than AI, said the Trollrensics co-founder, Richard Odekerken.
One X account used in Germany named @888_leila and belonging to a Leila Ruth 888 also posted in Russian.
The report showed that 13 different accounts belonging to a Leila Ruth 888 from user-stated locations around the world including Brazil, Ohio, Finland and Uganda.
Many were created after January 1, 2024 and amassed a large number of followers very quickly. Nearly all the accounts followed by the researchers followed back – another red flag for coordinated activity.
“The technique is primarily used to give the account credibility as it appears more legitimate if it has a large number of followers,” the report said.
Dutch S&D MEP Thijs Reuten, who commissioned the report, noted that while it was challenging to establish a direct link between these accounts and the EU election results, the research showed that the primary objective was to sow doubt and discredit Western authorities, a narrative known to be pushed by Russia.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
