Fact-checking on Spanish verification platforms during the election campaign for the 2019 European Parliament elections

Abstract

The use of disinformation narratives by different actors in the public sphere has had a great impact on electoral processes. Significant examples of this would be the Brexit process, the elections in the United States (2016) or in Brazil (2018). The European authorities showed great concern about the rise of false news and its possible emergence in the election campaign for elections to the European Parliament. One of the solutions increasingly consolidated to fight against misinformation is the fact checking or content verification. In lasts year, numerous verification platforms have been created (media dependent or independent), despite the fact that the task of contrasting facts has existed since the beginning of journalism. The purpose of this paper is analyze the typology of contents that Spanish fact checking platforms have submitted to verification regarding the elections to the European Parliament held on May 26, 2019.