United against online disinformation

The EDMO 2024 Scientific Conference on Disinformation is hosted by the University of Amsterdam on 26 and 27 February 2024. This conference aims to foster a comprehensive dialogue on the challenges, impacts, and strategies for addressing disinformation across various fields. The current call for paper welcomes submissions on the latest developments and innovations relevant to disinformation. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 20 October 2023.

The EDMO fact-checking network is currently mobilised to monitor the disinformation circulating online on the situation in Israel and Palestine. An early warning was published following the attack by Hamas on Israeli territory on 7 October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent declaration of war, after a year of escalating violence in the region. Different actors are trying to exploit the crisis to further their own agendas with various disinformation narratives.

EDMO welcomes its new programme director, Paolo Cesarini. Expert in media policy, the Digital Single Market and EU competition law, Paolo Cesarini previously held management roles at the European Commission, namely in DG COMP, covering both the antitrust and State aid policy areas, and in DG CONNECT, where he led various initiatives addressing the technological transition of the European media industry, the interdependency of societal issues and digital media, online disinformation and the innovation gap between research, technology and culture.

The EDMO Policy Research and Analysis team, coordinated by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (EUI) has been actively involved in the process of developing Structural Indicators by participating in the the Code of Practice Task-force. The first pilot measurement of Structural Indicators was published by TrustLab on September 26, 2023. This pilot, commissioned within the Code of Practice, is an important contribution to the process of designing, testing, and implementing sound and comprehensive Structural Indicators that unveil relevant dimensions of the disinformation phenomenon and how they evolve over time.

All 14 EDMO Hubs and the Executive Board gathered in Dubrovnik at the end of September. The meeting hosted by the Adria Digital Media Observatory (ADMO) at the University of Dubrovnik enabled insightful conversations on pressing topics including elections-related disinformation, generative AI and Structural Indicators. The event was followed by the 16th Dubrovnik Media Days co-organised by EDMO, gathering the European academic community committed against disinformation.

The Digital Media Literacy in EDMO Round Table interview series continues. Conducted by the Media and Learning Association (MLA), interviews are published monthly to highlight the media literacy work of the 14 EDMO hubs in Europe. EDMO media literacy experts assess their current local state of play, share their experiences on the main faced challenges and present their ongoing and future media literacy activities. Read the latest interview with the French hub DE FACTO.

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, including Generative AI, bring about new challenges as well as opportunities related to online disinformation. The EDMO network together with its 14 EDMO Hubs is engaged in exploring the risks that artificial intelligence poses with respect to the impact and scope of online disinformation as well as the opportunities it opens for the development of new AI-powered technologies facilitating its detection and understanding.