The European Union is stepping up attempts to counter fake news spread by the Kremlin. According to an EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy spokeswoman, the bloc’s East Stratcom Task Force will be getting additional employees in 2017 – just as France and Germany face major elections.
Up until now, the East Stratcom Task Force says it has concentrated on Eastern Europe, trying to create what it calls a “positive EU narrative” in the region by explaining policy, while analyzing disinformation trends and “busting myths.” But recently it has also been correcting more and more Germany-related stories – not least the false but much-shared Breitbart story claiming that a mob of Muslims had burned down Germany’s oldest church in Dortmund on New Year’s Eve.
