Information manipulations and influence operations can severely harm the integrity of electoral processes and distort the public discourse, thereby compromising the very essence of democratic life. If a sophisticated deepfake video, for instance, is pushed into virality through untransparent means in the run up to an election, voters may base their political choices on intentionally manipulated perceptions of reality and be deprived of their ability to form a free, well-informed opinion.

In the European Union, very large online platforms and search engines (VLOPSE) bear a distinct responsibility to assess and mitigate systemic risks that their services may pose to the integrity of electoral processes and public discourse. In particular, the Digital Services Act, in conjunction with the Code of Conduct on Disinformation, regulates those responsibilities.

To facilitate the mitigation of such risks, independent factchecking and research organisations operating within the EDMO Network are investing considerable efforts in monitoring and analysing the information space during important national elections. The Hungarian Digital Media Observatory publishes references to content distributed on VLOPSE accounts identified by its partner organisations, Political Capital and Lakmusz, with a view to alerting the platforms of abuses of platform policies or DSA regulations. During our reporting process, we focused on two phenomena - irrespective of their source and the political messages they helped propagate -: political advertising and coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB), both of which may undermine the integrity of the electoral information environment. However, it remained the sole responsibility of the platforms concerned to decide on the appropriate course of action on a case-by-case basis, respecting freedom of speech, human rights, and the DSA.

This table presents the alerts sent by Political Capital and Lakmusz during the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election campaign, without prejudice to any actions taken by the platforms.