Misinformation buffets Portugal ahead of snap elections

euronews (in English)

Misinformation buffets Portugal ahead of snap elections  The country has set up a rapid response system to help monitor and report dubious claims and trends linked to the elections.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/30/misinformation-buffets-portugal-ahead-of-snap-elections  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

Transcript

00:00Misinformation buffets Portugal ahead of snap elections.

00:09As Portugal gears up for its snap legislative elections scheduled for the 18th of May, misleading

00:14claims by politicians and social media users alike have seen an uptick.

00:19Some relate to the amount of support each political party is getting, such as this post

00:23on expat Andre Ventura, leader of the far-right Chega party.

00:27He says that social media polls put his party as most likely to come out on top in May,

00:32with a roughly 5% lead on the centre-right AD alliance led by the Social Democratic Party

00:37and about 9% ahead of the Socialist Party.

00:40Social media doesn't lie, Ventura says in the post.

00:43It's unclear exactly what the source for the poll is, but regardless, social media surveys

00:48are notoriously unreliable.

00:50More reliable polling from various credible companies puts AD at about 30%, the Socialist

00:56Party in the high 20s, and then Chega in third place with around 15%.

01:01Nevertheless, it is true that Chega has ramped up support to become a solid political force

01:06in Portugal in recent years.

01:08Ventura claimed in a recent televised debate that the Social Democratic Party, the Socialist

01:12Party and Chega came historically close to each other in the 2024 elections.

01:17The polls show that Chega has consistently risen since the turn of the decade, and last year's

01:22votes saw the party come in as the best performing third place party in recent years.

01:27With the 2025 elections on the horizon, Portugal is preparing for a deluge of misinformation

01:32linked to the vote by setting up a rapid response system to report dubious claims.

01:37According to local reports, a similar system has already been used in countries across Europe,

01:42allowing organisations to quickly flag urgent content or trends that could threaten election

01:47integrity and discuss them with platforms based on their policies.

Category

Transcript

Recommended