Fact-checks, research on disinformation and media literacy (trainings & e-learning materials)
Joined April 2023
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🗣️ Political Capital’s Head of Programme, Bulcsú Hunyadi, recently participated in #Disinfo2026, Europe’s biggest conference on #disinformation. Organised by @DisinfoEU, an independent European civil society organisation, the conference attracted 650 participants from civil society, the media, academia, tech companies, and government institutions. 🌐
🔎 The conference discussed the latest trends facing the counter-disinformation community. During a panel on securitised information and shrinking civic space, Bulcsú discussed the establishment of informational autocracy and state-sponsored disinformation in Hungary under Viktor Orbán's premiership, why this system proved ineffective in the 2026 elections and the lessons it may offer counter-disinformation actors in other countries.
🤝 We are deeply grateful to @DisinfoEU for the organisation of the conference and for the invitation. By doing so, we stand in solidarity with them in the face of pressure from foreign actors, regardless of its origin.
📢 @MertekMonitor's new Soft Censorship Report tracks changes in Hungary’s media system up to the April 2026 elections.
📺 Media concentration, the limited space for independent media, and the post-election transformation of the Fidesz-aligned media empire.
🤖 Plus: how AI is entering Hungarian newsrooms.
👉 Hungarian-language report: hdmo.eu/hu/2026/10/07/tulfes…
HDMO - Hungarian hub against disinformation retweeted
Published today, our new monthly report (edmo.eu/publications/monthly…) shows:
📈 Fueled by #Ceuta, disinformation on migration hits record high in August
🇷🇸 #Mladić death sparks new wave of #disinformation in the #Balkans
🇺🇦 False content targets the government in #Ukraine
🇧🇾 Anti #EU sentiment binds with nationalism in #Belarus
🇬🇪 Historical #revisionism and #propaganda loom over #Georgia
1/3
ALT Fueled by Ceuta, disinformation on migration reaches an all-time high of 22% in August | EDMO Monthly Report
HDMO - Hungarian hub against disinformation retweeted
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝗣𝘂𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁! 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸:
🩺 Fake doctors, real scams: #health #disinformation exploits desperation
🗳️ Latest #election-related developments in Sweden, Germany and Latvia
🇺🇸 Trump's claims in Ireland and turmoil inside the #MAGA movement
🇮🇷 How #Iran is trying to win the information war using #AI👩🏫 Cognitive consequences associated with #LLM integration in educational and informational contexts
👇 edmo.eu/publications/fake-do…
📰 @MediaPiac has featured the new paper by @peterkreko (@Pol_Cap, @HdmoHub) and Ágnes Urbán (@MertekMonitor, @HdmoHub) renewing public service media in Hungary.
Key elements:
🛡️ Editorial independence
✅ Credibility
🤝 Trust-building
🧠 Media literacy
👉 Article in Hungarian: tinyurl.com/3e6pfxdd
🎙️ Great turnout at yesterday’s Goethe-Institut Budapest roundtable!
@HdmoHub members @Wirth_Isa (@afpfr) and Gábor Polyák (@MertekMonitor, ELTE) discussed the role of credible public service media and how young people can become more conscious and critical media consumers.
#HDMO #MediaLiteracy
🎓🔎 As part of the HDMO project, @Wirth_Isa (@AFP, @HdmoHub) led a French-language media literacy workshop for 30 high school students in Budapest.
📰 Journalism & AFP ✅ Fact-checking 🔍 Source verification ❓ The “6 Ws”
#HDMO #MediaLiteracy #FactChecking
📺 Credibility, rather than speed, could become the most important value of a new public media system.
@peterkreko (@Pol_Cap, @HdmoHub) and Urbán Ágnes (@MertekMonitor, @HdmoHub) on how public media can become a credible actor in the fight against disinformation.
📰 Telex’s summary is available in Hungarian:
telex.hu/belfold/2026/09/10/…
📢 Two members of the @HDMO project, @peterkreko (@Pol_Cap, ELTE) and Ágnes Urbán (@MertekMonitor, Corvinus University) have published a new paper on how renewed public service media can strengthen trustworthy information and resilience against disinformation.
🔹 editorial independence and trust-building
🔹 prebunking and media literacy
🔹 cooperation with independent media
🔹 a platform strategy that also reaches younger audiences
👉 Summary: tinyurl.com/2zzerrv4
📢 Why did Fidesz’s propaganda machine fail?
📉 Fear of war: 46% → 29%
🛡️ Prebunking blunted smear campaigns
🏥 Lived reality proved stronger than propaganda
🪞 And Fidesz ended up believing its own story.
New piece by Richárd Demény and @peterkreko in @SocialEurope:
socialeurope.eu/orbans-propa…
HDMO - Hungarian hub against disinformation retweeted
💬"If you want to stir up hatred toward a specific group, spreading the claim that 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹𝘀 is an easy and effective way to achieve your goal"
The latest Weekly Pulse speaks of returning disinformation narratives around migration, and more. 🔗 Read it here: edmo.eu/publications/theyre-…
📢 Our new report is out: The Enforcement Gap
A joint report by @Alliance4Europe, @Pol_Cap and HDMO examined how Meta, Google and TikTok handled political advertising and coordinated inauthentic behaviour during Hungary’s 2026 election.
🔁 Meta repeatedly removed individual ads, but identical content kept coming back
❌ Google removed 0 of 15 reported political ads
🔍 TikTok found no violation in a coordinated network of 105 accounts
The key problem: platforms often enforce rules content by content, while manipulation campaigns operate as networks.
👉🏼 Read the full investigation at: tinyurl.com/yeyvs75d
📊 New @EDMO_EUI report: 🇺🇦 Ukraine, 🌍 migration, 🔥 climate, 🏥 health and 🇪🇺 EU-related narratives were key disinformation topics in July.
🤖 18% of fact-checks involved AI-generated or manipulated content.
Special focus: the migration crisis in Ceuta.
Read the report here: tinyurl.com/4unjjmkd
🤖 AI Today spoke with @peterkreko (@Pol_Cap) about how deepfakes, AI manipulation and artificial online actors are reshaping political discourse and democracy. 👇
Read more: tinyurl.com/4xdxsnuw
📉 How did Orbán’s information autocracy collapse? @lakmusz_hu sums up the key findings of a @Pol_Cap study published within the HDMO project, from failing narratives to AI manipulation and prebunking.
👉 tinyurl.com/3n3wux4j
📣 Why did Fidesz lose the communication dominance that had been one of the foundations of its political success for years?
📄 MEDIAPIAC.COM presents a recent Political Capital (HU) study arguing that by 2026, government communication was increasingly unable to override voters’ everyday experiences, while TISZA emerged as a credible governing alternative.
💡 One of the study’s key lessons is that propaganda can be a highly effective political tool in the short term, but over time it can also distort the perception of reality among those who operate it.
👉🏼 Médiapiac article:
mediapiac.com/2026/08/11/fid…
👉🏼 Full Political Capital study:
politicalcapital.hu/hirek.ph…
🔍 What happens when a powerful #disinformation machine stops persuading?
📊 One of the key lessons of Hungary’s 2026 #election is that the persuasive authority of an informational autocracy can collapse faster than the institutional infrastructure supporting it.
📚 Our new Hungarian-language study examines why Fidesz lost its agenda-setting power and why its disinformation strategy failed to persuade beyond its core electorate.
Key takeaways:
🔹 Political communication could no longer override voters’ everyday experiences.
🔹 Fear-based and war-related narratives lost much of their mobilising power beyond the core base.
🔹 AI-driven manipulation achieved wide reach but limited additional persuasion.
🔹 Prebunking and pre-emptive communication weakened smear campaigns and foreign influence operations.
🔹 Ultimately, the propaganda system may also have distorted Fidesz’s own assessment of political reality.
👉 Read more and access the full study: tinyurl.com/5ef29nkh
On 29 May 2026, the Hungarian Digital Media Observatory (HDMO) organized its first pan-European workshop, with participation from other EDMO hubs.
Planned as an online transfer knowledge workshop, the first edition took place in a hybrid format, hosted in Budapest by the French Institute during a series of events dedicated to Media literacy. ML experts from @CEDMOhub , @DEFACTO_UE, @GADMOeu, @IDMO_it, @Edmo_Belux, @BROD_EDMO and @nordishub joined online the 2 hour-meeting.
From the HDMO side, colleagues from the Idea Foundation and @AFP presented Hungarian best practices in media literacy education. HDMO members took part to the meeting in person, joined by a representative from French national ML organisation @LeCLEMI .
The main topic of the meeting was the transfer knowledge from HDMO ML partner the Idea Foundation. They showcased their efforts to build a Hungarian teacher community through their training programmes, as well as their successful initiatives involving students in the co-creation of educational materials on detekto.hu.
The discussion provided a valuable opportunity for HDMO to learn from other hubs’ experiences and future plans in developing effective media literacy initiatives across Europe.
HDMO - Hungarian hub against disinformation retweeted
📣 Nos démocraties à l’épreuve de la désinformation :
Dans le cadre de la Quinzaine de la lutte contre la désinformation, l’Ambassade de France en Hongrie et l’Institut français ont organisé la conférence « Regards croisés sur les campagnes électorales hongroise et française de 2026 » et la table ronde « L’ère de la confusion : doute et instrumentalisation de l’opinion publique » 👇
🇭🇺 La campagne électorale hongroise a constitué un véritable laboratoire : adaptation à l’interdiction de la publicité politique sur les plateformes, utilisation de l’IA et déferlante de contenus vidéos, amplification des narratifs via des réseaux de soutiens organisés mais aussi via des comportements inauthentiques, ingérence étrangère… Bulcsú Hunyadi, responsable des programmes de Political Capital, et Ágnes Urbán, directrice de Mérték Media Monitor, ont présenté leurs travaux sur cette campagne « post-réalité ».
🇫🇷 La France fait face depuis 2017 à des manœuvres étrangères de manipulation de l’information et s’est dotée pour s’en prémunir de VIGINUM, service qui détecte et combat ces ingérences numériques. Julian Merer, qui avait fait le déplacement depuis Paris, a expliqué comment VIGINUM se préparait aux échéances électorales françaises de 2027.
💡 Dans ce contexte, quel rôle pour les journalistes ? Modérés par Viktória Serdült, journaliste de HVG, les débats entre Ágnes Urbán, le journaliste indépendant Szabolcs Panyi, le journaliste et président du prix Albert-Londres Hervé Brusini, et le philosophe et maître de conférences à l'ENS-PSL Mathias Girel, ont permis de poursuivre la réflexion sur le rôle des médias, notamment publics, de la régulation des plateformes et de l’IA, ou encore de notre rapport à la vérité dans un monde saturé d’informations.
🙏 Un grand merci à tous les intervenants pour la qualité de ces discussions !
photographe ©Zsolt Ruszthi
@Pol_Cap @MertekMonitor @HdmoHub @panyiszabolcs @hervebrusini @MathiasGIREL @viktoriaserdult
