As we said from the outset, 2024 is the year of elections. When President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made surprise announcements for upcoming electoral contests, we acted quickly.

Now, the European Misinformation Response Coalition will be able to pool together the combined expertise of its respective members during these pivotal elections.

Initial contributors include Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Lead Stories as well as cohorts of journalism students from Birmingham City University in Britain and Santa Clara University in the United States. All partners may participate in work related to both elections.

Coalition members’ individual tiplines will field potential misinformation from various audiences and distribute fact-checks to end users as they’re available. Simultaneously, select journalism students will earn a stipend to scour social media platforms and to forward relevant content they find on closed messaging apps. These independent efforts will converge through the shared feed feature in Meedan’s flagship software solution, Check, allowing contributors to share queries from their tiplines with one another.

Election integrity in an era of disinformation

The World Economic Forum noted that misinformation and disinformation took the top spot for anticipated global risks over the next two years. At Meedan, we know that election periods can prove to be a particularly active time for falsehoods to propagate over social media and on closed messaging apps.

National Assembly elections to take place over two dates in France

Following a surge from the far right in the latest elections for the European Parliament, Macron dissolved the National Assembly, the lower house of France’s parliament, setting the stage for new elections on June 30 and July 7.

As the country already saw in its run-up to the European elections, disinformation campaigns pose a real threat. Politico reported that Minister Delegate for Europe Jean-Noël Barrot warned France was “overwhelmed with propaganda and disinformation” in April.

Building on our work in the 2022 French presidential election, we’ll again partner with AFP in an effort to identify and respond to misinformation circulating in the country at a vital moment.

General elections in the United Kingdom slated for July 4

Since this May, when Sunak announced general elections would take place on July 4, the U.K. has been in the midst of its own electoral cycle. Previously, the contest had been expected to take place later in the year, but voters will now head to the polls quickly on the heels of an announcement about falling inflation.

As a June BBC article explained, battleground voters in the United Kingdom are already encountering misleading and abusive content related to the election.

Journalism students from Birmingham City University will work alongside other coalition members to uncover prominent misinformation narratives, enabling partners to react in a timely fashion.

A crucial component of Meedan’s 2024 global election strategy

In addition to working closely with our partners in the European Misinformation Response Coalition, Meedan will continue to support organizations bolstering election integrity in other democratic contests throughout the world.

Want to reach out to any of the European Misinformation Response Coalition tiplines? All lines can be used to submit tips related to either election. Contact coalition partners here via WhatsApp only:

• Meedan’s tipline (unstaffed, only receives tips)
• AFP’s French Factuel tipline
• AFP’s German Faktencheck tipline

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