New research project aims to help safety authorities
Fake news and disinformation are becoming an ever-bigger problem. The most recent example being the high-profile incident that saw a streaming service accused of spreading false information. Social media are particularly susceptible to the phenomenon. In a joint research project, researchers are now investigating why this is the case, which individuals or groups are behind it and what can be done to stamp it out. The project, entitled ‘Prevent’, is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to the tune of around €1.6 million. Researchers from Paderborn University are also involved in the three-year project.
“We’re increasingly turning to social media to get access to information quickly. But fake news and conspiracy theories make it more difficult to form an opinion. Some fake news can even be detrimental to public health – that washing hands won’t protect you from coronavirus or that Covid vaccines are ineffective, for instance – while conspiracy theories can threaten the cohesion of our society and trigger social unrest,” explains Junior Professor Milad Mirbabaie, an information systems specialist at Paderborn University. “Conflicting information unnerves people, which results in them not adhering to protective measures in emergency situations,” adds Professor Stefan Stieglitz, a researcher in digital communication at the University of Duisburg-Essen who is heading up the project. “Institutions like the police and fire service enjoy a high level of public trust and could therefore step in here, but often have neither the expertise nor the resources to effectively combat disinformation.” This is where the project comes in: The findings should help safety authorities take targeted action against disinformation campaigns.
To this end, the researchers are investigating who is behind such campaigns and whether users can distinguish between what is disinformation and what is not. Mirbabaie: “On the basis of this, we’re developing tools to identify disinformation campaigns at an early stage, as well as countermeasures. We also plan to design a training programme for safety authority employees who deal with social media as part of their job.”
The objective of the ‘Empirical Research on the Prevention of Digital Disinformation Campaigns’ sub-project at Paderborn University is to develop individual, co-ordinated and automated preventive measures. “Based on the latest research, we can say that concepts already exist for stamping out disinformation that’s already out there. However, no research has yet been carried out into how to prevent disinformation from being circulated in the first place,” says Mirbabaie. The researchers want to change this. The team also plans to evaluate the preventive measures it comes up with in terms of how well-received they are by the safety authorities.
In addition to Paderborn University and the University of Duisburg-Essen, the University of Cologne, the University of Tübingen and Virtimo AG are also involved in the project.
