“If you look at how European media, and even big American media, are covering the issue now, I would say<br />that it is those few people on that team who have been able to raise awareness,” said Jakub Janda, a deputy director with European Values, a think tank based in Prague, who has worked with East Stratcom.<br />Created by the European Union to address “Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns,” the team — composed of diplomats, bureaucrats<br />and former journalists — tracks down reports to determine whether they are fake.<br />Similar groups are being created from Finland to the Czech Republic to disprove online hoaxes, state agencies are improving online security to counter potential hacking attacks<br />and European news media outlets are expanding fact-checking teams to counter false reports.<br />Like many journalists, Mr. Alandete, the Spanish newspaper’s managing editor and a former United States correspondent, had seen waves of false reports during the presidential campaign, many directed at Mexico — a country<br />that accounts for roughly half of El País’ online readership.<br />Catching every fake news story would be nearly impossible,<br />and the fake reports the team does combat routinely get a lot more viewers than its myth-busting efforts.
