European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO)
EDMO is an EU Commission-funded but governance-independent hub of 15 national/multinational Hubs spanning roughly 28-30 European countries, bringing together fact-checkers, media-literacy experts and academic researchers to detect, analyse and counter online disinformation. It coordinates the Rapid Response System under the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation, through which researchers flag time-sensitive electoral disinformation and ad-transparency violations directly to platforms and the European Commission.
- Type
- EU-funded independent hub coordinating anti-disinformation research, fact-checking and media literacy across Europe
- Based in
- Florence, Italy
- Focus region
- EU-wide, 15-hub national/multinational network
Notable projects
Deployed and published ex-post analyses of the Rapid Response System during multiple 2026 national elections (Cyprus, Malta), tracking political-ad compliance on Meta, TikTok, Google and X; published a 10-hub cross-country study of Meta/Google electoral-ad compliance during the 2024 EU Parliament elections; publishes recurring monthly disinformation monitoring briefs.
EDMO holds a formal institutional channel into platforms and the European Commission via the Code of Practice’s Rapid Response System, giving it faster platform-response times than ordinary public reporting; despite Commission funding, its governance is structurally independent of public authorities.
- Investigations
- 3
- Platforms tracked
- 4
- Active since
- 2025
- Latest report
- Jun 2026
Topics covered
- Ad Transparency & Fraud3
- Election Integrity3
- Platform Compliance & Governance3
Researchers
Current
- Andreas AndreouPostdoctoral Research Associate, Cyprus University of Technology; co-founder, Fact Check Cyprus (MedDMO)1
- Michael SirivianosAssociate Professor & Dean, School of Engineering, Cyprus University of Technology (MedDMO)1
- Trisha MeyerAssociate Professor of Digital Governance and Participation, Brussels School of Governance (VUB); EDMO Executive Board member1
Reports
Full database2026
2 reports- Jun 2026MetaTikTokGoogleX/Twitter
Anonymous third-party paid political advertising in the Cyprus 2026 parliamentary elections
MedDMO researchers tracked ads naming Cyprus’s 753 registered candidates across Meta, Google and TikTok ad libraries/APIs and identified five anonymous third-party advertising operations totalling more than 450 political ads, including one spreading fabricated polling data days before the vote. Enforcement was weak and reactive: Meta removed less than 1% of flagged ads while still live and TikTok logged only one removal in 220 days, but after researchers escalated directly to the platforms and the European Commission, Meta removed 687 ads within 30 hours and TikTok removed 631 ads within five days.
Ad Transparency & FraudElection IntegrityPlatform Compliance & GovernanceArt. 39 — Ad transparency - Jun 2026MetaGoogle
Ex-post analysis of the rapid response system during Malta’s 2026 general elections
Over a 21-day window around Malta’s snap 30 May 2026 general election, MedDMO’s Maltese team reported 296 URLs to Meta and Google, the majority unlabelled political advertising in breach of EU ad-transparency rules and the platforms’ own terms. Platforms mostly acted within one to two days, but enforcement was inconsistent: on Google, removed unlabelled ads were sometimes almost immediately republished by the same advertisers, and on Meta a coordinated inauthentic network of pages/profiles was taken down, partially reinstated on election day, then removed again.
Ad Transparency & FraudElection IntegrityPlatform Compliance & GovernanceArt. 39 — Ad transparency
2025
1 report- Sept 2025MetaGoogle
A Cross-Country Analysis of Electoral Advertising on Meta and Google during the EU 2024 Elections: Compliance, Transparency, and Targeting
Across 15 EU countries during the April-June 2024 EU Parliament election window, roughly 30,000 political ads were published and about €8.7 million spent on Meta and Google political advertising. Meta’s and Google’s own definitions of ‘political advertising’ were found not fully aligned with the EU’s Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising Regulation (2024/900), with both platforms only partially meeting its transparency and targeting-disclosure requirements.
Ad Transparency & FraudElection IntegrityPlatform Compliance & GovernanceArt. 39 — Ad transparencyBy Trisha Meyer