Missions to the moon have always been associated with long-debunked conspiracy theories. Now, new AI technology is being weaponised to create misleading content. Read the latest on Spotlight from @maria.ebu.ch 🔍
AI 'slop' used for new generation of moon misinformation
Missions to the moon have always been associated with long-debunked conspiracy theories — now new AI technology is being weaponised to create misleading content
spotlight.ebu.ch
Growing up in western Ireland all I knew of leprechauns was their life cycle: They came from Hong Kong (it was stamped on the bottom) & spent a brief sojourn in Ireland before being whisked away by yanks - loud in dress & demeanour - who descended gingerly from coaches at tourist shops #spéirghorm
ceej@ceej.online · 5mo agomy kid came home from kindergarten today and announced she was setting a trap to catch a leprechaun. apparently other kids at school always end up with candy and treats in their annual leprechaun traps, so she’s pretty stoked to see what she gets. I am begging other parents to fucking cool it
A slew of other similar images were also circulating, purporting to show Maduro being paraded around the airfield after his arrest by U.S. forces. spotlight.ebu.ch/p/maduro-cap...
Photos of Nicolás Maduro's capture by U.S. forces are AI
While the White House confirmed a Delta Force operation in Venezuela, many images circulating on social media were digital forgeries
spotlight.ebu.ch
ICYMI: Our end-of-year review of the biggest OSINT & fact-check stories we covered at #EBUSpotlight. This has been our first year collaborating with colleagues in public service media around Europe. Much more to come in 2026! spotlight.ebu.ch/p/2025-news-...
2025 in review: How we fact-checked a year of global crisis
From Israel's wars to a pope's death and anti-migrant riots in Europe, explore the top investigations from Eurovision News Spotlight’s inaugural year
spotlight.ebu.ch
📰 New Fact-Check Dispatch - The Bondi Beach terror attack: Unpacking the viral lies and fact-checking the hero's misidentification spotlight.ebu.ch/p/bondi-beac... 📝 @maria.ebu.ch #OSINT #factchecking #EBUSpotlight
The Bondi Beach terror attack: Unpacking the viral lies and fact-checking the hero's misidentification
See the most viral lies after the Sydney terror attack, how the hero was misidentified as Edward Crabtree, and Grok's AI failure
spotlight.ebu.ch
Since yesterday, our fact-checking network has been doing a deep dive on the misinfo surrounding the Bondi attack. See the top false claims here, and how we got to the truth. #EBUSpotlight spotlight.ebu.ch/p/bondi-beac...
The Bondi Beach terror attack: Unpacking the viral lies and fact-checking the hero's misidentification
See the most viral lies after the Sydney terror attack, how the hero was misidentified as Edward Crabtree, and Grok's AI failure
spotlight.ebu.ch
COP30 is here! We've done a huge prebunk of claims circulating about COP summits, the credentials of Brazil, and how best to tackle the climate emergency. spotlight.ebu.ch/p/from-clima...
From climate science to economic fear: Prebunking the narratives aiming to delegitimize COP30
Analysis of 70,000 social media posts unearth the pressing narratives aimed at delegitimizing global climate goals
spotlight.ebu.ch
Krisen sind immer ein gutes Einfallstor für Fakes. Zum Hurricane Melissa kursieren spektakuläre KI-Videos und altes Material. 🦈 @maria.ebu.ch warnt vorm Risiko für vielbeschäftigte Redaktionen, die in kurzen Nachrichtenzyklen nach Inhalten suchen. spotlight.ebu.ch/p/deluge-of-...
Deluge of AI-generated and old content masks true impact of Hurricane Melissa
This storm was highly anticipated before it made landfall — leaving plenty of time for view-hungry content creators to make fakes
spotlight.ebu.ch
Our investigation: an agency of the Israeli government deployed cross-platform advertising and used state social media accounts to directly target and encourage the public in participating countries to vote for the Israeli entry in the Eurovision Song Contest
Israeli government agency paid for adverts targeting Eurovision Song Contest public vote
All participating countries were targeted with ads on Google products
spotlight.ebu.ch
Wrote this review of the week in fact-checks, featuring our colleagues from RTVE🇪🇸 VRT🇧🇪 SVT🇸🇪 EBU🇨🇭 BBC🇬🇧 and Deutsche Welle🇩🇪 Free to read & subscribe! 💡
Fact-Check Dispatch
Issue 15 of the Spotlight Fact-Check Dispatch
spotlight.ebu.ch
Someone I know died recently. In the Facebook comments beneath articles about his tragic death, there's an influx of spam comments among the condolences, containing links purporting to show the accident that killed him.
As a catholic, nothing more jarring to me than seeing a dude wearing a hoodie preaching onstage somewhere in the vicinity of a drum set
My Animal Crossing island just got hit with 10% tariffs
The fact that people keep asking Grok to explain or confirm stories on X instead of activating a few brain cells is enough to make you despair for the future
Gavan Reilly@gavreilly.com · last yr.This Grok-created summary is not backed up by *literally even one* tweet in the lengthy run of messages beneath it.
When Trump says these tariffs are “reciprocal” it’s important to know he’s counting stuff like VAT – which is charged on domestic products as well as imports – as tariffs, which no-one else does. Because they’re not. So the numbers he’s giving are all nonsense.
Two Irish citizens ordered to leave Germany over pro-Palestinian protests despite no convictions
Two Irish citizens ordered to leave Germany over pro-Palestinian protests despite no convictions
Lawyers say the move undermines civil liberties for EU citizens
irishtimes.com
Women protesting outside Leinster House strip-searched, one subjected to cavity search
Women protesting outside Leinster House strip-searched, one subjected to cavity search
TDs protest at Garda treatment, Taoiseach did not understand ‘necessity for any strip-searching’
irishtimes.com
In advance of #stpatricksday, here's a thread of essential articles about Irish stuff which you can present to international friends who wish to understand us better. First up: a tale of two Taytos, by Róisín Lanigan. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/4005...
A tale of two Taytos: How an anthropomorphic crisp became a symbol for Irish identity
How a half-man half-crisp in a suit became a symbol of the Irish diaspora—and an important part of the Brexit deliberations
prospectmagazine.co.uk
From an Irish perspective, it has always seemed utterly bizarre that the head of state of Canada is the British monarch. So it's even more dumbfounding to imagine their king inviting Donald Trump for a state visit in the face of the wild threats he's made against Canada, one of his territories.
Ireland, do your thing (find out exactly what Mayo village Mark Carney's grandparents came from)
Great to see Danny Dyer doing absolute bits. Although for me I fear he's never going to beat his "trotters up" run
Danny Dyer calls David Cameron 'a twat' over Brexit
YouTube video by Guardian News
youtu.be
I am ordering all of my opinion-writing employees to only write about the importance of personal liberty, if they don't want to write on the assigned topic, they will lose their jobs
Watching the Lotto ad where the guy builds an elaborate water slide in his neighbourhood: "As if the council would ever approve that"
Fully agree with Donal Skehan that Ireland should have a national song contest, separate from the Late Late Show. Let's do an Irish Sanremo that our top talent can be proud to enter — for the prestige of it alone, with Eurovision entry as an additional perk! #Eurosong
