Poland faces rising disinformation ahead of presidential election

The Ministry of Digitalization of Poland has reported an increase in recent disinformation related to the presidential elections. This was reported by PAP.

Monika Gembicka from the communication department of the Ministry of Digitalization noted that one of the manifestations of this was a "disinformation operation, likely conducted by the Russian side in the English-language information space."

Magdalena Wilczyńska, the Director of the Cyberspace Information Protection Division at the National Research Institute of the Scientific and Academic Computer Network (NASK), shared that NASK had developed a map of disinformation topics related to the elections.

Wilczyńska also pointed to conspiracy theories that could undermine public trust in the electoral process.

"There may be narratives about people who do not have voting rights participating in the election," she added.

Additionally, NASK anticipates the appearance of fake materials related to the European Union and interference from other countries in Polish elections.

In the report by the Alliance4Europe organization, it was mentioned that the platform X is used for spreading disinformation. Between March 4 and April 4 of this year, nearly 300 posts related to Polish elections appeared on this platform.

As explained by Aleksandra Wójtowicz, analyst and co-author of the Alliance4Europe report, the authors of disinformation posts, to increase the credibility of their false claims, added links to articles published on Polish information portals.

Wójtowicz noted that disinformation creators assume users won’t click on the links or read the full texts.

Old articles or screenshots, deprived of full context, are often used. Some Polish media help disinformers by crafting headlines and leads in a way that detaches them from the rest of the text, which potentially does not contain falsehoods.

The Alliance4Europe report emphasizes that the next goal is to undermine the authority of political opponents by spreading fake news that discredits them. An additional goal is to strengthen Kremlin propaganda.

As previously reported, 17 candidates have applied to participate in this year’s presidential elections in Poland – the largest number of candidates for the presidential seat since 1995.

The presidential elections in Poland will take place on May 18, with a possible second round on June 1.