Ahead of the European elections between 6 and 9 June, EU leaders and the European Union itself are increasingly finding themselves as the targets of misinformation campaigns.

Whether it’s an attempt to discredit political rivals or claims about EU regulations, social media is rife with false narratives.

One such example stems from the dramatic shooting of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, which has prompted swathes of politically-motivated misinformation online.

Social media users are claiming that this picture shows Fico’s alleged attacker alongside Martin Šimečka, the father of the leader of the opposition party Progressive Slovakia.

Slovakian media has identified the alleged shooter as self-described writer Juraj Cintula.

However, the picture in the post doesn’t show Cintula and Šimečka together. In fact, the second man in the picture isn’t Šimečka at all, and the photo itself comes from one of Cintula’s book launches in 2019.

Facebook itself has now labelled the post as false information.

The attempted false association of the attack on Fico with his political rivals remains particularly dangerous ahead of the European elections.

Is Donald Tusk ashamed of his Polish identity?

Across the border in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been accused of attacking the notion of Polishness as an identity.

A picture posted on TikTok claims that Tusk called Polishness ‘an abnormality’ that comes to him ‘with painful persistence’. However, this is misleading.

The prime minister did state those words, but they come from an article he wrote over 40 years ago.

According to Polish fact-checkers, Tusk’s article critically discusses Poles’ attitudes to reality before confirming that he identifies with his own Polishness, at a time when Poland was a communist satellite of the Soviet Union.

“Despite its oppressive heritage it remains our common conscious choice,” he said.

As a strongly pro-EU prime minister who previously served as president of the European Council, Tusk is a crucial target for misinformation mere weeks before the elections.

Is the EU banning cash payments of over €100,000?

Often, it’s the EU itself that’s under attack from those spreading false narratives.

Some social media users say the bloc has prohibited all cash payments over €100,000.

This is partly true: the EU has approved rules limiting cash transactions to €100,000 as part of a raft of new anti-money laundering measures, but these restrictions don’t apply to all transactions.

Specifically, there’s a limit on professional traders barring them from accepting or paying cash over €100,000.

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Transfers between private individuals in a non-professional context are excluded.

Ahead of the European elections, it’s critical that news is shared accurately and fairly, so that the electorate can vote with the proper information at hand.

Indonesian authorities evacuated residents of seven villages within a nearly four-mile radius of a volcano on the remote island of Halmahera in Indonesia after it erupted and spewed ash about 2.5 miles into the sky.

Reuters reported that Mount Ibu erupted on Saturday night, turning the sky into a spectacle of gray ash spewing out of the volcano’s crater with flashes of purple lightning.

A crew consisting of police, military and search and rescue services was sent to the area to evacuate residents from surrounding villages, according to a statement from the disaster mitigation agency.

The joint team reportedly assisted the elderly with evacuating the area while residents were moved out of the area in pickup trucks and taken to emergency tents to spend the night.

INDONESIA’S MOUNT IBU VOLCANO ERUPTS, AUTHORITIES PREPARE TO EVACUATE THOUSANDS

The agency did not specify how many people had been moved, though authorities recommended that a seven-kilometer (4.35-mile) radius be evacuated.

Mount Ibu erupted last Monday for about five minutes, just days after it erupted on May 10. The eruptions caused the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation to raise the alert level for the volcano from 2 to 3, which is the second-highest level.

11 CONFIRMED DEAD, INCLUDING STUDENTS, IN INDONESIA BUS CRASH AFTER REPORTED BRAKE FAILURE

Lightning appears amid a storm as Mount Ibu spews volcanic material during an eruption, as seen from Gam Ici in West Halmahera, North Maluku province, Indonesia, on May 18, 2024. (Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation/Handout via Reuters)

Officials advised residents and tourists not to conduct any activities within three miles of Mount Ibu’s crater. More than 13,000 people live within a 3-mile radius of the northern side of the crater, Hendra Gunawan, chief of the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation agency said.

VIDEO SHOWS LIGHTNING SHOOTING FROM TOXIC ASH CLOUD DURING POWERFUL VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN INDONESIA

Purple lighting is seen near Mount Ibu on May 18, 2024. (Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation/Handout via Reuters)

Mount Ibu is a 4,347-foot volcano on the northwest coast of the remote island of Halmahera.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

INDONESIA’S RUANG VOLCANO SPITS MORE HOT ASH AFTER ERUPTION FORCES SCHOOLS AND AIRPORTS TO CLOSE

Mount Ibu spews thick smoke in Gam Ici, North Maluku, on May 13, 2024. A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted on May 13, spewing a huge ash tower more than five kilometers (three miles) into the sky after authorities raised its alert level to the second-highest last week.

On Thursday, the agency raised the alert level to the highest level, following several eruptions.

On May 11, flash floods and “cold lava” flowed from Mount Marapi, one of the most active volcanoes in West Sumatra province, into nearby districts after torrential rains, killing more than 60 people.

North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano also erupted in recent weeks, prompting authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people from a nearby island.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.