X posts claiming European leaders took cocaine reach 135M views with no Community Notes
Posts promoting false claims that Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Friedrich Merz took drugs on a train to Kyiv didn't feature X’s user-generated fact-checks.
New research by CCDH identified 50 posts promoting baseless claims, including one by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones with over 27 million views. The claims were swiftly dismissed by officials.
About
Posts on X promoting baseless claims that European leaders Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz took cocaine on a train to Kyiv have reached 135 million views, none of which featured Community Notes, X’s system of user-generated fact-checks.
On 10th May, videos were taken of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting down for a meeting on a train to Kyiv.[i] Shortly after the meeting, a number of X accounts claimed that video footage had captured evidence that the leaders were taking cocaine.[ii]
These claims were swiftly dismissed by officials, with France’s Élysée Palace taking the unusual step of providing high-definition images to show that the white object on the table was, in fact, a tissue.[iii]
To assess the reach of the claims, CCDH researchers sifted through posts containing relevant keywords, identifying 50 of the most highly viewed posts on X promoting it. Together, the 50 posts accrued a combined total of 135 million views. The narratives in the posts largely fell into the following categories:
- Claims a coffee stirrer tidied away by Chancellor Merz was a spoon for cocaine[iv]
- Claims that the tissue tucked away by President Macron was a bag of cocaine[v]
- Claims the video shows that leaders are “under the influence” or “drug addicts”[vi]
- Posts promoting claims of cocaine use in the videos and relating them to a separate, longstanding smear about President Zelenskyy using cocaine[vii]
Researchers checked each of the 50 posts to see if they displayed a Community Note three days after the event, finding that none of them did.
The research raises concerns that X’s Community Notes system of user-generated fact-checks may be failing to adequately address the spread of misinformation. In this case, claims likely to erode trust in democratically elected politicians were able to quickly go viral with no Community Notes visible.
Post examples
This post by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones without a Community Note claims there was a bag of white powder on the table, that Merz “hides the spoon”, claims Zelenskyy is a “known cocaine enthusiast”, and then says that Macron, Starmer, and Merz look “cracked out”.[viii] This post has over 27 million views.
This post without a Community Note and with over 19 million views is from a user who goes by the handle @SilentlySirs and claims that Merz and Macron hid cocaine paraphernalia.[ix]
This post by the user @ActivePatriotUK without a Community Note added arrows to the video to point to the tissue and stir stick and claimed that the “coke eds” were “caught red-handed”.[x] This post has over 6 million views.
Methodology Note
Researchers collected 50 of the most highly viewed posts promoting the claim that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President of France Emmanuel Macron, and Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz took cocaine in the context of their trip to Kyiv on 10th May 2025.[xi]
To do this, they made a list of keywords relating to cocaine, its use, effects, and history, along with the first and last names of people involved and gathered English-language posts containing the terms between 10th May to 11th May.
Focusing on those with the highest views, researchers sifted through these posts to identify those promoting the drug use claim. Each post in the dataset was checked by two researchers to confirm it promotes the claim that the politicians took cocaine.
The full keyword search is in the box below:
| cocaine|coke|blow|snow|crack|powder|rock|bump|line|snort|smoke|smoking|straw| card|pipe|spoon|high|tweak|Miami|Keir|Starmer|Emmanuel|Macron|Friedrich|Merz| Volodymyr|Zelensky |
[i] Starmer joins world leaders in Ukraine to call for ceasefire, BBC, Henry Zeffman, 10 May 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj7ln2v15yo
[ii] “France derides Russia’s false claim of drug use by Macron, Merz and Starmer”, The Guardian, 12 May 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/12/france-derides-russia-false-claim-drug-use-macron-merz-starmer
[iii] “France accuses enemies of spreading fake news after ‘cocaine bag’ claims”, Reuters, 12 May 2025, https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/france-accuses-enemies-spreading-fake-news-after-cocaine-bag-claims-2025-05-12/
[iv] Alex Jones, X, 11 May 2025, https://twitter.com/RealAlexJones/statuses/1921566762601967620
[v] SilentlySirs, X, 11 May 2025, https://twitter.com/SilentlySirs/statuses/1921506036449427848
[vi] notPBD, X, 11 May 2025, https://twitter.com/notPBD/statuses/1921652260498465063
QBCCIntegrity, X, 11 May 2025, https://twitter.com/QBCCIntegrity/statuses/1921555534131458095
[vii] Lord Bebo, X, 11 May 2025, https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/statuses/1921523274871124203
Concerned Citizen, X, 11 May 2025, https://x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1921578448046248438
“Politics Pro-Russia Social Media Accounts Spread Obviously Fake Zelensky Cocaine Video”, Rolling Stone, 23 April 2023, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/pro-russia-social-media-accounts-fake-zelensky-cocaine-video-1342178/
[viii] Alex Jones, X, 11 May 2025, https://twitter.com/RealAlexJones/statuses/1921566762601967620
[ix] SilentlySirs, X, 11 May 2025, https://twitter.com/SilentlySirs/statuses/1921506036449427848
[x] ActivePatriotUK, X, 11 May 2025, https://twitter.com/ActivePatriotUK/statuses/1921556546049221074
[xi] Starmer joins world leaders in Ukraine to call for ceasefire, BBC, Henry Zeffman, 10 May 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj7ln2v15yo