ADVERTISEMENTMisleading claims and theories have been circulating online after Spain, Portugal and parts of southern France were hit by an unprecedented power outage on Monday.
Some of these false claims have been amplified in the mainstream media, causing confusion and unfounded speculation as to the cause of the blackout, which left passengers stranded in trains and elevators, and forced businesses to shutter their doors.
Speaking to the country, Spain’s prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said these crisis situations set “the perfect conditions for misinformation and hoaxes,” urging people “not to spread information from dubious sources.”
Euroverify fact-checks some of the unfounded reports.
No evidence the blackout was caused by a cyber attack
We identified a raft of claims that the European energy grid had suffered a cyber attack at the hands of Russia, Morocco or North Korea. Other false theories suggested a terrorist attack.
Spain’s National Cryptology Centre (INCIBE) – which is affiliated to its National Intelligence Centre (CNI) – did initially investigate the possibility of a cyber attack on Monday while the Spanish prime minister said all possible causes would be investigated.
But on Tuesday, Spain’s partly state-owned grid operator Red Eléctrica dismissed the possibility of a cyber attack, a human error or a meteorological phenomenon.
The operator signalled the likely cause to be a sudden disconnection between two electricity generation plants in the south-west of the Iberian Peninsula.
A Portuguese government spokesperson has also ruled out a cyberattack as the potential cause, citing “an issue in the power transmission network” in Spain.
EU sources have also distanced themselves from speculation of a cyber attack. Speaking to reporters outside the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday, European Commission vice-president Teresa Ribera said “there is nothing that allows us to confirm that there has been some kind of boycott or cyberattack.”
Ursula von der Leyen has not accused Russia
Shortly after the blackout hit around 12:33 Spanish time (11:33 Portuguese time) on Monday, a false narrative began to circulate claiming that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had accused Russia of a “cyber attack.”
The Commission’s chief spokesperson Paula Pinho swiftly shot down the claims saying that the “statement circulated in the press does not come from the President.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Pinho said the episode had shown “how far manipulation of information can go.”
Anti-system politician Alvise Pérez, elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) last year, was one of those responsible for spreading the bogus statement.
On his Telegram channel, Alvise posted: “According to CNN, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said in a press conference that this is a ‘direct attack on European sovereignty’, signalling Russia.”
ADVERTISEMENTVon der Leyen did not appear in said news conference on Monday, and her statement released on social media does not in any way speculate over the cause of the outage.
Portuguese grid operator denies blaming ‘rare atmospheric phenomenon’
Several media outlets – including Reuters, CNN and the Guardian – reported on Monday that Portugal’s grid operator, Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), had said in a statement that a “rare atmospheric phenomenon,” namely extreme temperature variations in Spain’s interior, was to blame for the massive outage.
According to the reported statement, oscillations in the very high voltage lines (400 kV), a phenomenon known as “induced atmospheric vibration,” would have caused “synchronisation failures between the electrical systems.”
The claims were echoed by the Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, who said on Monday that the issue “originated in Spain.”
ADVERTISEMENTBut REN later said it had not released such a statement, prompting Reuters and other major outlets to rectify their reporting.
“REN confirms we did not put out this statement,” REN spokesman Bruno Silva told AFP on Tuesday.
No evidence of ‘cover-up’
Spain’s far-right party, Vox, accused the Spanish government on Tuesday of hiding the causes of the power outage.
Speaking in the Spanish Congress, the party’s parliamentary spokesperson Pepa Millán claimed that the government and the grid operator “know perfectly well what has happened and they don’t want to say it (…) because the government is the only one responsible.”
ADVERTISEMENTThe Spanish interior ministor, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, hit back saying that the Spanish government has been “transparent” in the information it has provided.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government would request an “independent investigation” to determine the causes of the outage. He has also refused to rule out any hypothoses, including that of a cyber attack.
Spain’s high court, the Audiencia Nacional, is also investigating whether the outage could have been caused by an “IT sabotage on Spanish critical infrastructure.”
