Conflict & crisis Hub

The Conflict & Crisis Hub brings together the most relevant and insightful materials on disinformation in times of conflict and crisis. It’s a curated space that connects news, research, and tools chosen for their value and clarity. Here, you can find what’s most worth reading, watching, and exploring, all through a single, trusted platform.

Why this hub?

Since the beginning of the decade, the world has been stricken by a global pandemic, natural disasters, and a twofold increase in armed conflicts, with 2023 marking one of the most violent years since the end of the Cold War, recording 59 conflicts worldwide.

All this has worsened an already fragile information landscape. Disinformation expands significantly during moments of political, economic, and social unrest, from wars and humanitarian crises to public health emergencies. In such contexts, it acts as fuel for instability, amplifying fear, undermining trust, and distorting information vital for saving lives and protecting rights.

The Conflict & Crisis Hub is designed to help you map out these dynamics, how false or manipulated information spreads during emergencies and how societies, platforms, and institutions respond.

What you’ll find here

  • News & Frontlines highlights noteworthy developments and analyses on disinformation in conflict and crisis contexts, a curated selection refreshed monthly for what’s most relevant and revealing.
  • Disinfo in Depth gathers reports and analyses from academics, CSOs, and international organisations, divided into two main areas: Conflicts and Crises.
  • Multimedia Library features podcasts and webinars exploring the link between information and emergencies.
  • Community Resources offers practical tools to track and counter disinformation, alongside initiatives and organisations dedicated to protecting information integrity in conflict and crisis settings.

In short, this hub is your go-to space for exploring how disinformation shapes and amplifies conflicts and crises. It brings together the most relevant insights, tools, and analyses, fostering collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to navigate an increasingly complex information landscape.

Together, we’re building a community to tackle these challenges head-on, promoting awareness and digital literacy.

NEWS & frontlines

The most recent news on platforms and disinformation in conflict or crisis, updated monthly

key updates

NewsGuard: Health misinformation networks and high-profile political figures weaponized a peer-reviewed oncology study to falsely claim that commercial sunscreen use causes skin cancer. Tracking data from NewsGuard’s Reality Check, the investigation exposes how the authors’ original findings were intentionally stripped of critical context regarding the “sunscreen paradox”, where improper application and prolonged UV exposure drive higher cancer rates, collectively generating millions of social media impressions that directly undermine public health protocols.

Euronews: South Korea’s controversial “Fake News” Law (effective July 7, 2026), cracks down on digital misinformation by imposing heavy financial penalties on tech platforms and high-traffic influencers. While the government presents it as a vital institutional response to restore trust after political unrest, international press and journalist associations warn it sets a dangerous precedent for state censorship, creating a chilling effect on free speech and investigative journalism during societal crises.

United Nations: During the UN General Assembly session on July 6, 2026, the UN Secretary-General’s benchmark report and the subsequent European Union statement both identified information manipulation, digital polarization, and weaponized hate speech as critical modern drivers of atrocity risks. Framed around the “Responsibility to Protect” framework, the dual addresses emphasize that digital escalation serves as a vital pre-conflict indicator, urging member states to integrate cognitive defense and digital monitoring into global humanitarian early-warning networks to prevent mass violence.

Atlantic Council: This analysis outlines key strategic lessons Western democracies can learn from Ukraine’s highly effective, proactive resilience model against Russian state propaganda. Highlighting a unified, “whole-of-society” defense architecture that bridges military commands, civil society, and independent fact-checkers, the text demonstrates how rapid information distribution, systemic prebunking, and high media literacy can successfully neutralize sophisticated foreign cyber-psychological operations and safeguard democratic information ecosystems.

United Nations: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued a formal warning regarding coordinated disinformation and smear campaigns explicitly designed to systematically undermine and marginalize UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). Addressing the General Assembly on June 30, 2026, the address highlights how weaponised narratives target the vital humanitarian agency’s institutional legitimacy and compound its ongoing liquidity crisis, directly threatening both the distribution of essential food, healthcare, and education services, and the physical safety of UN personnel deployed on the ground.

Maldita.es: This investigation exposes Russia’s systematic deployment of “Hahaganda”, the strategic weaponization of humor, mockery, and parody to degrade foreign targets. Examining deceptive campaigns from deepfakes to fabricated street graffiti and cloned Charlie Hebdo covers, the research details how the Kremlin leverages coordinated inauthentic networks to saturate Western social media with derogatory satire, aiming to erode public trust in Ukrainian leadership and fracture international solidarity.

NewsGuard: Conspiracy networks scaled a coordinated disinformation campaign blaming the U.S. High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) for devastating twin earthquakes in Venezuela and record-breaking heatwaves across Europe. Tracking data from NewsGuard’s Reality Check in June 2026, the investigation debunks the persistent pseudo-scientific claim that upper-atmosphere radio transmitters can weaponize or generate surface-level natural disasters, exposing how global crisis events are systematically exploited to amplify anti-Western sentiment and deep-state conspiracy theories.

International IDEA: Reporting from an International IDEA side event at the UN Human Rights Council, this article outlines a critical shift toward analyzing Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) through an international human rights framework. The text examines how hostile, state-sponsored information operations systematically violate fundamental liberties—including electoral participation, freedom of expression, privacy, and non-discrimination—urging global bodies to transition from purely security-centric policies toward rights-based defensive and legal countermeasures against cross-border cognitive warfare. 

EEAS: This joint EEAS and CCD report details Russia’s systemic Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) ecosystem aimed at derailing Ukraine’s integration into the European Union. Analyzing over 240,000 deceptive publications, the text exposes how state-sponsored networks deploy generative AI and localized information-laundering models to exploit economic, historical, and security anxieties across EU member states, warning that this cross-border cognitive warfare directly targets European enlargement and collective security. 

EDMO: This investigative report maps the recurring operational pattern linking localized violent crimes to far-right civil unrest across Dublin, Southport, and Belfast. It details how engagement-driven algorithms, foreign Russian manipulation networks, local political agitators, and financially motivated “disinformation economy” actors rapidly scale xenophobic fabrications regarding suspect identities, weaponizing digital ecosystems to inflame anti-migrant violence and exploit social vulnerabilities during breaking public safety crises. 

Euronews / Council of the EU: An EU Council sanctions package specifically targets key human assets within Russian hybrid propaganda networks, including a social media influencer, a PR specialist, and an Orthodox bishop. The text highlights a strategic regulatory shift in European digital governance, moving beyond corporate bans to directly penalize individual narrative-laundering actors who weaponize social platforms and institutional standing to erode Western cohesion and actively destabilize frontline democratic states like Moldova.

The Guardian: France’s cybersecurity agency, Viginum, exposed a cross-border foreign digital interference campaign orchestrated by the private Israeli technology firm BlackCore targeting multiple democratic elections. The investigation reveals how the information-warfare company mobilized coordinated networks of inauthentic social media accounts to systematically target political entities across Scotland, France, New York, Angola, and Togo, highlighting a growing geopolitical threat where commercial cyber assets are hired to manipulate democratic narratives and compromise election integrity globally.

CNN: A congressional investigation revealed that Spotify removed over 57,000 automated, drug-related podcast episodes exploited as part of a highly scaled malicious spam campaign. The analysis exposes how bad actors systematically weaponized streaming metadata, AI-generated titles, and show descriptions to artificially boost the search engine optimization (SEO) of illegal online pharmacies, highlighting critical moderation vulnerabilities and reactive enforcement delays across open digital media architectures.

WIRED: An investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) revealed that YouTube hosted and ran advertisements on dozens of channels directly linked to U.S.-sanctioned Iranian entities. The analysis exposes significant blind spots in corporate digital compliance frameworks, demonstrating how algorithmic monetization systems generated revenue from sanctioned state actors and Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs), highlighting the complex intersection of global tech platforms, advertising architectures, and international economic sanctions during geopolitical conflicts.

In depth

A repository of research papers and articles from academia, international organisations, and civil society organisations addressing key questions and trends related to conflict and crisis

Iran-Israel-US conflict

Curated materials on disinformation surrounding the Iran–Israel–US conflict, covering narratives, tactics, and AI-driven propaganda campaigns.

Israel–Hamas

A compilation of articles and reports on disinformation linked to the Israel–Hamas war, from propaganda campaigns to online influence efforts.

WAR IN UKRAINE

Curated materials on disinformation surrounding Russia’s war against Ukraine, covering narratives, tactics, and international responses.

Cross-cutting conflict issues

Articles and analyses that trace disinformation themes and tactics appearing across multiple conflicts worldwide.

Health crises

A compilation of articles and reports on disinformation during health crises, from Covid-19 to emerging outbreaks.

Natural disaster crises

Materials on how disinformation exploits earthquakes, floods, fires and other natural disasters to spread fear or mistrust.

Cross-cutting crisis issues

Articles highlighting disinformation tactics and narratives that recur across different crises worldwide.

Multimedia LIBRARY

A collection of webinars and podcasts from us and the wider community, dedicated to conflict and crisis.

Webinars

A collection of our own and community webinars examining how disinformation shapes and fuels conflicts and crises

podcasts

A collection of podcasts examining how disinformation shapes and fuels conflicts and crises

Community resources

Efforts and tools to guarantee a safe information environment during conflicts and crisis

Tools, guides & tips

Practical instruments and digital solutions developed to detect, track, and counter disinformation during conflicts and crises

The Center for Countering Digital Hate offers practical guidance on how to avoid spreading disinformation, to increase your own information resilience, and to practise self-care during conflicts, emergencies, and disasters, and how to report social media posts that spread lies, conspiracies or misleading claims to the different platforms.

Bellingcat provides tools and resources to think critically about sources found online. In this short guide, the organisation gives a few tips on what to consider when confronted with an abundance of footage and claims. 

In January 2022, the Centre for Information Resilience launched the Eyes on Russia Map to collect and verify videos, photos, satellite imagery and other media information related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The map represents the community’s effort to verify, analyze, and map what has happened in Ukraine since the escalation of Russia’s aggression in the country at the start of 2022. The map is a collaborative effort driven by CIR, involving GeoConfirmed, Bellingcat, and a wide range of volunteers and organisations that have supported it. thread for more information about the geolocation of Russian firing positions causing destruction in Ukraine.  

NATO’s official framework for tackling disinformation and information manipulation as national security threats.

This guidance piece offers concrete recommendations for UN missions on navigating information threats in conflict settings.

This RAND practical guide offers a 17-point social media checklist to help responders and citizens counter disaster-related misinformation. Designed as a quick, hands-on tool, it translates research into actionable steps for real-time crisis communication.

BBC Specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring shares tips on how to spot fake news and false posts about the war in Ukraine. 

Defend Democracy provides guidance on how to share information responsibly. 

 Human rights defenders, journalists, activists, and others speaking out on these issues are facing repressive tactics both in person and online. This digital resilience tip sheet by Access Now and SMEX supports you in defending against reported threats.

Initiatives & organisations

Community-driven projects and networks working to protect information integrity and support resilience in conflict and crisis contexts

Announced by the European Commission in 2025, the Global Health Resilience Initiative (GHRI) aims to tackle health disinformation globally and strengthen resilience against future health crises. Still in early stages with no defined budget or implementation details.

Note: Political initiative on emerging phase: track for updates.

Supports partnerships local / international, builds societal resilience, counters foreign influence narratives

The organization has built a timeline of how cyberattacks and operations have been targeting critical infrastructure and civilian objects. On June 16, Cyberpeace Institute launched its ‘Cyber Attacks in Times of Conflict Platform #Ukraine’, which includes attacks against not only Ukraine but also the Russian Federation, and other countries impacted by attacks linked to this armed conflict. This Platform also provides a breakdown of attacks by the different sectors affected such as telecommunications, energy, transport, etc., and the harms and impact for people and society.  

A “master framework” for coordinating responses to influence operations, information manipulation, foreign malign influence, etc.

Independent NGO focusing on countering disinformation and state-sponsored propaganda; publishes daily monitoring & analysis.

Provides guides, tools, and lessons to help NGOs defend themselves against mis/disinformation campaigns.

Supports CSOs, media, and governments to counter disinformation in volatile environments and crisis settings.

ZIF provides “one-stop” services and expertise on peace operations integrating training, the secondment of German civilian personnel, international capacity development, research and analysis under one roof. Works on strengthening mission capacities to monitor and push back disinformation that targets missions.

Thematic hubs (ARCHIVE)

This hub is a central space for collecting resource hubs developed in response to major global conflicts and crises that generate high volumes of mis- and disinformation. By documenting and organising responses to these events, it aims to foster a culture of crisis preparedness – equipping institutions, researchers, and civil society with lessons learned and tools for future response.

Currently, it includes archives on the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the Israel-Hamas armed conflict. Each was created in real time to support clarity, counter disinformation, and provide accessible tools and verified information at critical early stages.

While none of the individual hubs are actively updated, they remain available as living archives – a record of the efforts made to navigate chaotic information environments, support public understanding, and resist the spread of harmful falsehoods. We invite researchers, practitioners, and the broader community to explore these repositories and continue building on this work. Reliable, transparent information remains one of the strongest tools in times of crisis.

Resources

Israel-Hamas armed conflict resource hub

Essential information and links to reliable research, analysis and fact-checks to help you navigate during this crisis.

Read more

Resources

Ukraine War Resource Hub

Essential information and links to reliable research, analysis and fact-checks to help you navigate during this crisis.

Read more

Resources

COVID-19 Resource Hub

Check out our resource hub for the coronavirus pandemic, comprising of national, international, and platform responses to the infodemic, as well as research and initiatives.

Read more

Last updated: 07/07/2026

The articles and resources listed in this hub do not necessarily represent EU DisinfoLab’s position. This resource is designed to support open dialogue and highlight a broad range of voices working to counter disinformation in conflict and crisis settings.