Through the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), the EU supports a European network of fact-checkers, including TheJournal in Ireland. For a monthly roundup of European fact-checks, visit the main EDMO website. Here, we highlight recent fact-checks by TheJournal FactCheck team.
Social media posts repeat debunked and baseless accusations against George Soros
Published: 18 September – by Shane Raymond
Social media posts falsely claim that billionaire philanthropist George Soros was a Nazi and that he owns Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and most members of congress. A photograph of a Nazi SS uniform shared alongside the claims actually depicts an accountant who worked at Auschwitz called Oskar Groening. Soros was born in 1939 into a non-religious Jewish family in Hungary, and was too young to have joined the Nazi party by the end of the war in 1945.
Debunked: Gardaí discovered an Airsoft gun, but didn’t arrest ‘migrant men’ with firearms in Dublin
Published: 21 September – by Shane Raymond
Social media posts claim a group of migrant men were arrested in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin for waving guns around. Gardaí did not find a real gun or make any arrests at the scene. Officers did recover an imitation firearm during an optional search of a public amenity in Dublin 1 on Wednesday 16 September 2026.
FactFind: Are vapes ‘nearly worse’ than cigarettes?
Published: 21 September – by Stephen McDermott
Micheál Martin claimed this month that e-cigarettes are nearly worse than traditional cigarettes, describing them as the revenge of Big Tobacco. Speaking at the Fianna Fáil think-in in Tullamore, Co Offaly on 8 September, the Taoiseach also cited advice from former US chief medical officer Dr Anthony Fauci. When asked for the basis of the claim, the Department of An Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil did not reply by the time of publication.
Debunked: Posts celebrating Danish party’s result in ‘tonight’s election’ are six months late
Published: 23 September – by Shane Raymond
Social media accounts have shared posts celebrating a massive electoral victory for Denmark’s anti-Islamic migration People’s Party in “tonight’s election” on 21 September. But Denmark has not held an election since March. The viral text was copied from online posts made six months earlier, when the party actually won 16 of the 179 seats in the Danish Parliament.