  We investigate the presence (and the influence) of disinformation spreading
on online social networks in Italy, in the5-month period preceding the 2019
European Parliament elections. To this aim we collected a large-scale dataset
oftweets associated to thousands of news articles published on Italian
disinformation websites. In the observation period,a few outlets accounted for
most of the deceptive information circulating on Twitter, which focused on
controversialand polarizing topics of debate such as immigration, national
safety and (Italian) nationalism. We found evidence ofconnections between
different disinformation outlets across Europe, U.S. and Russia, which often
linked to each otherand featured similar, even translated, articles in the
period before the elections. Overall, the spread of disinformation onTwitter
was confined in a limited community, strongly (and explicitly) related to the
Italian conservative and far-rightpolitical environment, who had a limited
impact on online discussions on the up-coming elections.
