“… What news is real? … Everyone decides for themselves.” These disillusioned lines from Veneta Androva’s fictionalised 3D animated documentary about targeted disinformation campaigns resonate. They are spoken by a share4pay user – a real-life Bulgarian platform where you can make “News Sites” sprout like mushrooms with a few clicks in order to earn money with social shares. Their content: alleged gender ideology and racist migration narratives. Androva uses the documentary form to reduce the authenticity suggested by these news sites to absurdity; her pixelated interview partners speak with AI-generated voices, a mushroom creature recites real clickbait headlines (“Romania Shows How to Treat the Gender Plague From the West”), complete with language model analysis. The effect is as eery as the message: the circulation of fake news remains unchecked; containment is virtually impossible.

Marie Ketzscher