Disinformation targeting LGBTQ+ is “one of the most present and constant in the European Union”

2023-06-24 09:17:36

It’s a first. The European Digital Media Observatory (Edmo), a European platform bringing together academics and fact-checking media, took an interest in a survey, published at the end of May, on disinformation specifically targeting LGBTQ + people. Fourteen European fact-checking media contributed to this work, such as AFP in France, Lakmusz in Hungary, Correctiv in Germany, Maldita in Spain, etc.

First observation: disinformation targeting the LGBTQ + community is “one of the most present and constant in the European Union”, write Enzo Panizio and Tommaso Canetta, the authors of investigation, headed by Pagella Politica/Facta news, an Italian fact-checking media. “It seems that the false information on this subject is becoming more and more insidious, they point out, with unfounded allegations that often incite hatred against minorities, laws and institutions. On the occasion of the month of pride, and while the Parisian pride march takes place this Saturday, June 24, 20 Minutes questioned one of the authors of the survey, the deputy director of Pagella Politica/Facta News, Tommaso Canetta, also fact-checking coordinator within the Edmo network.

What motivated you to launch this survey?

In April, we saw a spike in misinformation against LGBTQ+ people. This spike was influenced by false information from the United States related to the shooting at an elementary school in Nashville. This is not the first peak that we observe. Each month [depuis juillet 2021], we publish a note of the fact-checking topics that have been the most viral at European level. For some time we have noticed that disinformation against LGBTQ+ people is one of the most important topics in the European Union. This is why we have decided to focus on it, starting from the beginning of 2023, with some examples also taken from previous months, such as false information disseminated about monkeypox, which was used to attacking LGBTQ+ communities.

What are the main misinformation narratives?

We have identified five of them, which are very frequent. The first concerns homosexuals and transgender people who would be “sick”. This is not new, of course, since even before social networks, homosexuality was considered a pathology by the WHO until 1992. [et le trouble de l’identité de genre a été supprimé du manuel officiel de diagnostics seulement en 2019]. This disinformation takes a slightly different turn about trans identities, since it would be the transition that would lead to mental illnesses.

The second narrative is that LGBTQ+ people are pedophiles. We have detected a lot of false information, unfounded theories, which, in summary, claim that LGBTQ+ people would pressure political institutions to legalize sex with children, these kinds of hateful messages. Then a third story, which argues that LGBTQ+ people are violent and dangerous and would commit shootings. Even before the Nashville shootings in March 2023 [où un homme transgenre a tué 6 personnes], baseless claims were already circulating that the perpetrator of the Uvalde shooting in Texas, for example, was a trans person. It wasn’t true and it got worse to the point where other people were charged with the crime just because they were trans [alors que les hommes cis sont auteurs de 97 % des tueries de masse aux Etats-Unis selon les chiffres de The Violence Project, souligne Le Guardian dans une enquête].

Another story concerns trans people who would receive preferential treatment in sport [avec de fausses histoires, des vidéos manipulées, de fausses affirmations, etc.]. Finally, the last story concerns conspiracy theories around the so-called LGBTQ+ dictatorship and LBGTQ+ indoctrination. The narrative is that European elites and national governments would try to subvert the national identities and culture of countries by injecting this LGBTQ+ propaganda.

These stories are disseminated at European level, not just nationally. So they are very similar. I think there is a transnational community of people, with close sensibilities, who are bothered by verified or non-existent information in the case of misinformation, events, laws, related to LGBTQ+ communities. And so, of course, the information, and then the misinformation that flows from it, flows through those communities in a similar way.

In your investigation, you write that misinformation is increasingly insidious. What do you mean ?

We are witnessing, in my view, a growing polarization around this issue. We see it in the United States. We see this in Spain, for example, where a law on trans people has been passed. We see it in Hungary or Poland where LGBTQ+ communities are attacked by the government.

Misinformation is becoming more insidious in the sense that we first see it in social bubbles, it’s dangerous, but not as dangerous as when mainstream media and politicians start spreading this same kind of misinformation. At the moment, I think it’s dangerous because we see the polarization of society around the subject. This is a very pertinent question which concerns a minority and which is now used by politicians and the media as a polarizing subject. So I think the current situation is on a slippery slope.

You mention the case of the law adopted in February 2023 which facilitated gender change in Spain, and which gave rise to a wave of disinformation in Europe and, in particular, in Hungary…

Yes. Our Spanish colleagues are probably the ones who sent us the most material. This legislation created a lot of debate and, subsequently, a lot of misinformation in Spain. We also received interesting information from Hungary, where our colleagues told us that snippets of information were exploited to misinform. An article by Litmus tells that an institute close to Fidesz, the party in government, falsely claimed that the new law opened access to sex reassignment surgeries for adolescents, when it had nothing to do [la loi d’égalité des personnes trans autorise, à partir de 16 ans, le changement de genre sur les papiers d’identité sur déclaration du demandeur]. So basically this Spanish law has been exploited to send a misleading message, a misinformation message to Hungary.

How do these narratives targeting LGBTQ+ relate to Russian disinformation?

We have seen, for example, fabricated images of Zelensky going to a pride march. And this is absolutely consistent with the stories coming from Russia, from Putin himself and from the Orthodox Church, those stories where he claims to fight the morally corrupt West, the end of traditions, impiety and Satanism. All of these types of misinformation stories overlap in some way. And even before the war in Ukraine, for years Putin was presented as the champion of traditional Christian values ​​against progressive culture. The war did not change that.