COVID-19 disinformation monitoring programme

The COVID-19 monitoring and reporting programme set out in the Joint Communication 'Tackling COVID-19 disinformation - Getting the facts right' is a transparency measure to ensure accountability towards the public of the efforts made by platforms and relevant industry associations to limit online disinformation related to Covid-19.

Platforms involved, who are signatories to the Code of Practice on Disinformation, regularly report on:

• actions to increase visibility of authoritative sources such as the WHO and national health organisations;
• tools to facilitate access to reliable information of public interest;
• demoted and removed content containing false and/or misleading information likely to cause physical harm or impair public health policies;
• prohibited advertising that exploits the crisis;
• efforts to provide accurate information on vaccines.

In particular, platforms have been asked to provide information relating to the following areas:

• initiatives to promote authoritative content at EU and at Member State level;
• initiatives and tools to improve users’ awareness;
• information on manipulative behaviour on their services;
• data on flows of advertising linked to COVID-19 disinformation on their services and on third-party websites.

While platforms detected a high number of content including false information related to COVID-19, they did not detect coordinated disinformation operations with specific focus on COVID-19 run on their services.

Read the monthly reports

• August 2020 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• September 2020 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• October 2020 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• November 2020 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• December 2020 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• January 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• February 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• March 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation 
• April 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• May 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• June 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• July 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• July and August 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• September and October 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• November and December 2021 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• January and February 2022 – Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation
• March and April 2022 - Fighting COVID-19 Disinformation