A new year has begun, but in 2025 disinformation is still present in society. The month of January has made its mark in politics, thanks to Donald Trump, the recently inaugurated President of the United States. It has also been used to generate hate speech and has had an impact on health. Here is our take on it.
There is no indication that Greenland will hold a referendum to decide whether to join the United States.
Donald Trump dominated the start of the year with his inauguration as the 47th President of the United States. At the event, he gave a speech riddled with misinformation, which was broadcast live by several international media. He is one of the politicians best known for his ability to spread misinformation and make controversial claims. This month he made a statement saying he wanted to reopen the Panama Canal and take over Greenland. Following these statements, a speech by the Greenlandic Prime Minister and his Danish counterpart went viral in which the former allegedly announced that a referendum would be held to decide whether to join the US. The video was taken out of context, as the minister argued that the people of Greenland should be allowed to decide, but that they did not want to be Danish or American.
No press clipping reports that Trump’s mother said he was an ‘idiot with no common sense’.
This January, not only Donald Trump was in the news, but also his family, especially his mother. It went viral that Mary Anne Trump had said: ‘Yes, he’s an idiot with no common sense and no social skills, but he’s my son. I hope he never goes into politics. He would be a disaster. However, there is no evidence in newspaper libraries that the tycoon’s mother ever said these words.
A figure of 22 prisoners in Catalonia is used to blame migration for 90% of rapes
From Donald Trump and Elon Musk to Spanish political parties and viral messages on social networks, US and Spanish politicians are using disinformation to generate hate speech. In January this year, a viral message reposted by Elon Musk on X (formerly Twitter) claimed that 91% of those convicted of rape in Catalonia were foreigners, a fact he claimed proved that the majority of immigrants commit crimes. At Verificat, we analyse the data on which the statistic is based and verify that it comes from a very small sample of people, which does not allow us to extrapolate causality between nationality and criminality.
This month, the Verificat team has launched a tool to dispel the false narratives we are confronted with every day and to ensure informed debates free of prejudice. This is the web portal ‘Les mentides alimenten l’odi’, where, after months of work, we have compiled, researched and updated data to provide knowledge that allows users to participate in the fight against hate and disinformation.
Mental health does not cause half of sickness absence
Another case of disinformation. Messages are circulating on social networks claiming that half of the sick leave in Spain and Catalonia is due to mental health, but thanks to a transparency request made by Verificat, we have been able to demonstrate that in 2024 more than 600,000 sick leaves were initiated for mental health, which represents only 9.33% of the total number of sick leaves. So, the claim is false.
Probiotics and cold showers: health checks
This January, there were two main headlines in the health checks. The first was that having a cold shower could cause an ictus. This is wrong, neither taking a cold shower nor the order in which you shower are risk factors for having an ictus. Age, diet and exercise are, among other things. The second is that probiotics can treat or prevent various diseases and improve general health. This is misleading; probiotics have been shown to be beneficial in certain situations, such as preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, but there is no solid evidence to support their universal use for all diseases or health conditions.
