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False claims about ballot manipulation spread across social media during the 2025 German elections, raising concerns about the fast impact of misinformation online and how internet users can better protect themselves.
Recent global and geopolitical events have prompted an increasingly large avalanche of false narratives and fake news both in Europe and beyond.While the US faces a stream of dubious claims made by President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the European continent is also under the constant threat of disinformation.For example, during and since Germany’s recent federal election, social media was full of misleading posts about election fraud, with some viral posts claiming that the name of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate was missing from the Leipzig ballot. However, Leipzig officials quickly debunked the claim, saying all ballots were printed the same way, making such changes impossible.This is just a sample of the false narratives and disinformation campaigns that Europeans and others have to deal with on a daily basis.It’s increasingly important that we know how to spot and protect ourselves against the flood of fake news, so how can we do so?EuroVerify spoke to experts who shared their three top tips for spotting and avoiding misinformation online.#1: Watch for Red Flag stock phrasesCertain cliché phrases are a strong indicator that certain claims may not be what they seem, according to Marc Owen Jones, professor of media analytics at Northwestern University in Qatar.”Rhetorical techniques are very strong giveaways and things that [misleading posts] might say like ‘Western media isn’t telling you’, or things that ‘the mainstream media is not telling you’… These are red flags”, says Jones. These statements often appear during decisive events, like elections, or in war-related posts, influencing users’ opinions and behaviour. For Robert Rajczyk, professor at the Institute of Journalism and Media Communication at the University of Silesia in Katowice, social media and its driven algorithm tools can not only shape but also polarise users’ opinions. “The more controversial content user consumes, the more content of this type is being offered to internet users,” he said. “So we will hear mainly what we want to hear or what we ourselves believe in.”#2: Look carefully for AI-generated misinformationAnother significant concern is the use of AI-generated content, which makes it even harder for users to differentiate between real and fake information. Jones said that while deepfakes and AI-generated images can look incredibly realistic, there are key ways to identify them. “Sometimes you get artefacts where the ears are not symmetrical, or it’s not very good at generating earrings,” said Jones. “You might look closely and see that if they don’t have glasses there might be glasses stems near the ear.” These are not “foolproof” methods to recognise fake content, according to Jones, but he said that the main warning signs to identify AI-generated visuals and text can be very similar. “It’s about manipulation, it’s about trying to inflame the emotions because when our emotions are inflamed, we’re more likely to share something and it’s more likely to go viral. This is the danger of AI,” Jones said.#3: Double-check your sourcesWith so many different stories online, fact-checking is key. Ike Picone, professor of media and journalism studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, stressed the importance of media literacy beyond just recognising misinformation.”When it comes to specific forms of literacy and news literacy, one of the key aspects is understanding how news works,” said Picone. “Because when you understand how news works, you can identify, for example, why certain traditional news media might also be susceptible to a certain bias.”Although the techniques to recognise bias can vary, for Picone it can also come from a much simpler method, such as checking for others’ opinions. “Ask your parents, ask your friends, ‘do you think this is real? Do you believe it?'”, he said. Rajczyk stressed a similar need for media literacy and how crucial it is to compare news from multiple sources. “Watch mainstream media, verify information with reading, watching and listening to other mainstream media,” Rajczyk said. “If we haven’t got a proper education and we don’t know the real historical context, we will be much less resilient to such content,” he added.
