Sawt Falasteen - ECB's digital euro sparks flurry of online misinformation

The decision to create a digital euro -- essentially an electronic form of cash backed by the ECB -- has not been made yet and any possible launch would be years away.

But when Lagarde in a press conference this month referenced an October 2025 deadline for moving to the next stage of preparations, social media lit up with alarmed messages that the launch was imminent.

Harald Vilimsky, a member of the European Parliament from Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), was among those posting that the ECB "wants to introduce the digital euro in October", an incorrect claim that spread in several languages.

The claim was echoed on X by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the eurosceptic head of the Rise Up France party, who added that the project was "madness for our freedoms".

Other widely shared posts repeated misconceptions that have long dogged the project: that a digital euro would mean the "end of cash" or be used for financial surveillance, allowing the ECB to "block" or "track" payments or "access savings".

"Your money will no longer be yours," alleged a French TikTok video shared more than 15,000 times.

The falsehoods circulating online reveal a broader "mistrust of centralised institutions", said Vicky Van Eyck, executive director of campaign group Positive Money Europe.

Recent comments by French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen about investment needs were similarly misused in viral posts that falsely claimed people's savings would be taken from them.

- 'Strategic autonomy' -

The ECB and dozens of other central banks worldwide are exploring or putting in place central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as cash use declines.

Conspiracy theories about governments planning cashless societies as way of controlling citizens have proliferated since the Covid-19 pandemic, but ECB officials have been at pains to stress that a digital euro would complement cash -- not replace it.

Issued by the ECB, the money would be risk-free. It would be held in a digital wallet and payments could be made online or offline, allowing for cash-like anonymity. The ECB says it would not be able to directly link transactions to specific individuals.

In making the case for a digital euro, the ECB argues that it would bolster Europe's "strategic autonomy".

A digital euro would allow for direct money transfers between users, offering a pan-European payment service that could reduce reliance on US payment giants such as Mastercard, Visa, Apple Pay or PayPal.

"This dependence exposes Europe to risks of economic pressure and coercion," ECB chief economist Philip Lane warned last week, in a nod to transatlantic tensions under US President Donald Trump.

Lane said a digital euro could also counter the influence of increasingly popular dollar-backed "stablecoins" -- private digital currencies that are pegged to the US dollar and could undermine the euro if widely adopted in Europe.

- Challenges -

Some observers remain critical.

Ignazio Angeloni, a former ECB official and currently a fellow at Milan's Bocconi University, said Europeans already had "a plethora" of easy payment options and weren't necessarily looking for another.

For now, the digital euro discussions were still at a fairly technical stage, Angeloni said, and many members of the public were "not interested".

Van Eyck said interest could be hindered by plans to cap how many digital euros consumers could hold.

An ECB report published in March found that between 2022 and 2024, awareness about the digital euro jumped from 18 to 40 percent among eurozone survey respondents. The potential willingness to use it remained below 50 percent.

The decision to issue a digital euro will only come once European Union legislation is in place, but progress in Brussels has been slow.

If adopted, a digital euro would be introduced from mid-2027 or 2028 at the earliest, officials told AFP.

Good communication with the public will be key to its success, said Van Eyck.

"The big issue with not having the public on board is that the digital euro could flop," she said.

X.AbuJaber--SF-PST