A hub of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO)
As part of EDMO Ireland’s ongoing review of platform compliance with the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) during Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election, we are sharing our initial observations of several concerning trends in how online platforms have addressed electoral integrity. The DSA is the EU’s framework for regulating online platforms. It requires very large platforms … Read More “Platforms Failing on Electoral Integrity: EDMO Ireland’s Initial Findings” »
EDMO Ireland’s Aidan O’Brien appeared on RTÉ Six One News yesterday to discuss the latest and most sophisticated example of AI-generated election disinformation to circulate during the presidential campaign. The video, which appeared late Tuesday night after the RTÉ Prime Time election debate, mimicked the format of RTÉ’s Nine O’Clock News. It purported to show … Read More “EDMO Ireland comments on AI-generated election disinformation” »
EDMO Ireland and Media Literacy Ireland have relaunched the Be Election Smart media literacy campaign ahead of the Presidential Election on Friday, 24 October. Originally developed as an EU-wide initiative for the 2024 European Elections, Be Election Smart encourages voters to think critically about the information they encounter online during election periods. EDMO Ireland has … Read More “EDMO Ireland and Media Literacy Ireland relaunch Be Election Smart campaign ahead of Presidential Election” »
On 15 September, EDMO Ireland published a new report, Elon Musk’s X as a Threat to Electoral Integrity: How Conor McGregor’s Irish Presidential Ambitions Unfolded on X. The report examined 127 posts from Conor McGregor’s X account between January and September 2025 relating to his presidential campaign. The findings show that McGregor’s campaign was characterised … Read More “EDMO Ireland Report on Elon Musk’s X and Conor McGregor’s Presidential Campaign Featured in National Media” »
As Ireland prepares for the presidential election on 24 October, EDMO Ireland is hosting an interactive workshop on elections and misinformation in Dún Laoghaire. The event takes place on Wednesday, 15 October in the Lab (Level 3) of the dlr LexIcon library. Register here. The workshop will explore how voters are targeted by spin, persuasion, … Read More “Spot the Spin: A Workshop on Misinformation and Elections with EDMO Ireland” »
Conor McGregor’s short-lived presidential campaign spread misinformation, personal attacks, and extremist rhetoric to a global audience, according to a new report from EDMO Ireland. The study, From Free Speech to Violent Rhetoric: Elon Musk’s X as a Threat to Electoral Integrity, examined 127 posts from McGregor’s X (formerly Twitter) account between January and September 2025. … Read More “EDMO Ireland Report Concludes McGregor’s Online Campaign Shows Risks of X to Irish Democracy” »
EDMO Ireland is providing media literacy training to a panel of trainers from Media Literacy Ireland (MLI). Both organisations share the goal of increasing media literacy in Ireland. However, neither EDMO Ireland nor MLI is in a position to deliver training nationwide. Instead, the MLI-certified trainer panel will identify individuals with expertise in different aspects … Read More “EDMO Ireland Supports Media Literacy Trainer Development” »
A claim circulating on social media falsely alleges that the Premier League has banned players from wearing rainbow-coloured bootlaces and captain’s armbands linked to the Rainbow Laces campaign. This claim is untrue. While the Premier League has ended its formal partnership with the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, which launched the Rainbow Laces initiative, players remain free to wear rainbow laces, armbands, or other inclusive symbols if they choose to do so.
In early August 2025, Fox News aired a segment claiming Dublin had experienced a 114% rise in “murder/assault attempts”, attributing this surge to increased immigration. A fact-check by The Journal thoroughly debunks this claim. The report notes there is no official crime category labelled “murder/assault attempts”, and statistics from An Garda Síochána or the Central … Read More “Debunked: Fox News claims about an Irish crime wave are based on discredited claims and bad stats” »
As Ireland’s 2025 presidential race unfolds, the integrity of its democratic process faces new challenges from foreign interference and smear campaigns to misinformation spread by bots. Writing in The Irish Times, Eileen Culloty, assistant professor in communications and deputy director of the DCU Institute for Media, Democracy and Society, together with David Farrell, Professor of Politics at University College Dublin and expert in electoral systems, argue that institutional safeguards alone are not enough. And advocate empowering ordinary citizen through tools like citizen panels and grassroots vigilance to actively defend democratic norms and ensure fair and trusted elections.
