Panoramic view of Syntagma Square. Young and old, workers, students, ordinary citizens, parents with their children, the elderly. They were all there at the massive demonstration for Tempe in the center of Athens on Friday. [InTime News]
Hours after Friday’s mass rallies across Greece demanding justice for the Tempe train disaster, numerous misleading viral posts appeared on social media spreading disinformation about the real causes of the demonstration, falsely suggesting that it was anti-globalist, anti-European and anti-immigrant in nature.
A post by Radio Europe, a viral account on X that poses as a supporter of the “Make Europe Great Again” movement, falsely claimed on Sunday that the mass rallies were a patriotic uprising calling for the resignation of Greece’s globalist government and linking it to immigration. The post – which included a video of the Tempe demonstrations along with the claim that more than 500 illegal migrants arrive in Greece by boat every day – has already garnered more than 1 million impressions on X.
Though it has since been fact-checked by the platform’s community notes feature, it has already been shared by over 7,000 profiles on X. Some of these are Greek accounts disputing the blatant misinformation, while others are accounts with a history of spreading either Kremlin talking points or anti-immigration rhetoric, who instead amplify or double down on the false claims.
A French-language account called Grand Éveil, which describes itself as a freethinker telling the truth about conspiracies, also posted a video of the Athens rally, falsely suggesting that it was a Greek protest against Europe and asking its followers “What is France waiting for? The misleading post has already garnered over 70,000 views and 2,250 reposts, while a significant number of the accounts re-sharing it and calling for a French protest against Europe were created in recent weeks, suggesting a possible attempt at a targeted, artificially amplified disinformation campaign.
“The media will not show you this. THE RESURGENCE OF SOVEREIGN NATIONS,” claimed another X account called Kriswild_Kris, falsely claiming that the Greek protests were “a rally against Europe’s betrayal” to tens of thousands of X users who saw the post. The account has also posted over 50 additional tweets in the last 24 hours alone, most of which are anti-Ukrainian and anti-European in nature, and very often misleading or outright false.
The false social media posts make no mention of the real reasons for the demonstration, and ignore the fact that one of the demands of the protesters was for greater harmonization with European standards on railway safety and accountability, and for a more modern, European-style railway system.
They have already been retweeted by dozens of accounts in several European languages and on various social media platforms, reaching millions of users across the continent and beyond.
“I just had a fight with another user who shared a false post on threads claiming that the Greek protests over the Tempe train accident were actually an anti-EU rally,” Italian novelist and designer Talos Erika Vernizzi Mazonaki told Kathimerini English Edition, adding that countless accounts have shared similar false posts in the Italian social media ecosystem.
Antonis Kalogeropoulos, associate professor of political communication at the Free University of Brussels, told Kathimerini English Edition that these posts highlight how much of the misinformation we encounter today – whether online or through traditional media – is often strategically spread and distributed.
“Citizens are more resilient to misinformation in media environments with strong public media and trusted media organizations, while polarized and highly disrupted media landscapes create fertile ground for both exposure to and belief in misinformation,” he added.
Leo Salvi-Sifnaios, an Athens resident who attended Friday’s rally in Syntagma Square, said he was appalled by the blatant misrepresentation of these viral posts, which had nothing to do with the true nature of the mass demonstration.
“I was there, like most Greeks, to protest the lack of justice for the Tempe train crash and to demand a modernized railway system that meets EU standards,” he said. “We were there to remember the 57 souls who lost their lives after years of government neglect – plain and simple.”