FERMI

INTRODUCTION

FERMI - Fake nEws Risk Mitigator ‘Online social networks, news media and web platforms are the way contemporary societies operate for communication, information exchange, business, co-creation, learning and knowledge acquisition. However, the veracity of information circulating in the digital world is often in dispute’.

We have asked prof. dr. Vagelis Papakonstantinou what uniqueness FERMI aims to bring.  Vangelis: “Indeed, disinformation and fake news (D & FN) increasingly affect and distort public opinion. National governments and supranational institutions recognize the spread of D&FN as a malicious social problem. Indeed, the proliferation of D&FN online may have severe consequences. First, the spread of D&FN might infuse uncertainty and fear, intensify the crisis situations, weaken the European societies and aggravating their divisions. In turn, the increase in divisions and fear leads to episodes of physical violence offline and other hate crimes .  As such, D&FN have the power to polarise public debates and put the health, security, and environment of EU citizens at risk”.

Thus, how will FERMI look into the whole research value chain?  Vagelis: “FERMI will use a combination of multi-disciplinary expertise and intense inter-disciplinary research where integration of Social Sciences and Humanities- (SSH) disciplines (i.e. Behavioural Sciences, Law & Ethics, Economics), are at the core.  More specifically, here, I am thinking about the continuous monitoring and analysis regarding legal, ethical, personal data, fundamental rights and privacy aspects associated with the deployment, usage and impact of the designed Artificial Intelligent and Machine Learning technologies  (from i.e., Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems) which the Consortium will be using in the foreseen cases.  All the above-mentioned disciplines will be embodied by the partners of the Consortium-each well-positioned across the various phases of the project’s research value chain-when deploying their agile-oriented expertise.

AIM (WHAT)

Online social networks, news media and web platforms are the way contemporary societies operate for communication, information exchange, business, co-creation, learning and knowledge acquisition . However, the veracity of information circulating in the digital world is often in dispute. Indeed, disinformation and fake news (D&FN) increasingly affect and distort public opinion. National governments and supranational institutions recognize the spread of D&FN as a pernicious social problem. Indeed, the diffusion online of D&FN may have severe consequences. First, the spread of D&FN might infuse uncertainty and fear, intensify the crisis situations, weaken the European societies aggravating their divisions. In turn, the increase in divisions and fear leads to episodes of physical violence offline and other hate crimes. As such, D&FN have the power to polarise public debates and put the health, security, and environment of EU citizens at risk. Finally, the use of fake accounts, the involvement of AI-generated fake content and the use of bots that can spread D&FN at scale pose additional problems.

METHODOLOGY (HOW)

FERMI will exploit a holistic and cross-disciplinary methodology towards a framework that will thoroughly analyse D&FN and their sources, in combination with all the socioeconomic factors that may affect both the spreading of such incidents and their effects on multiple dimensions of society.

IMPACT (WHY)

Comprising a set of innovative technological developments, FERMI will facilitate EU Police Authorities to detect and monitor the way that D&FN spread, both in terms of locations and within different segments of the society, and to put in place relevant security countermeasures; it will produce and diffuse tailormade training material designed for

1. European Police Authorities,
2. other professionals and stakeholders,
3. EU citizens for combating the spread and limiting the impact of D&FN and increasing digital trust.