{"id":1561,"date":"2026-05-15T12:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T12:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2026-10-15T16:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T16:18:34","slug":"weekly-fact-checking-round-up-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/weekly-fact-checking-round-up-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly factchecking round-up: 8-14 May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), the EU supports a European network of factcheckers, including TheJournal in Ireland. For a monthly roundup of European factchecks, visit the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/edmo.eu\/\">main EDMO website<\/a>. Here, we highlight recent pieces by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/factcheck\/news\/\">TheJournal FactCheck<\/a>&nbsp;team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/misinformatoin-non-profits-bait-emails-targeting-trans-migrant-groups-staff-volunteeers-abuse-7037459-May2026\/\">Misinformation is leading to abuse and harassment of staff and volunteers in NGOs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published: 13 May \u2013 by Shane Raymond<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New research for EDMO found that misinformation targeting NGOs has led to routine harassment of staff and volunteers, particularly in organisations supporting migrants and LGBTQ+ communities. The report also highlighted the use of \u201cbait emails\u201d designed to provoke responses that can later be shared online to fuel abuse and disinformation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/pandemic-covid-2-0-conspiracy-theories-hantavirus-cruise-ship-7034400-May2026\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/pandemic-covid-2-0-conspiracy-theories-hantavirus-cruise-ship-7034400-May2026\/\">\u2018Covid 2.0\u2019: Pandemic-era conspiracies return after the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published: 14 May \u2013 by Shane Raymond<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conspiracy theories linking a hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship to Covid-19, vaccines and planned pandemics spread rapidly online following reports of confirmed cases. The article examined how familiar pandemic-era narratives and monetised misinformation accounts are fuelling fear and confusion around the outbreak despite public health experts assessing the wider risk as low. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Through the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), the EU supports a European network of factcheckers, including TheJournal in Ireland. For a monthly roundup of European factchecks, visit the&nbsp;main EDMO website. Here, we highlight recent pieces by&nbsp;TheJournal FactCheck&nbsp;team. Misinformation is leading to abuse and harassment of staff and volunteers in NGOs Published: 13 May \u2013 by &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/weekly-fact-checking-round-up-5\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Weekly factchecking round-up: 8-14 May 2026&#8221;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[27,28,44,54],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-factchecks","tag-disinformation","tag-fact-checking","tag-misinformation","tag-thejournal"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pexels-hartonocreativestudio-20457108-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1999,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}