Against Fake News: Virtimo supports researchers of the University Duisburg Essen as a project partner
How can Fake News and desinformation campaigns be recognized and combatted? Researchers of the University Duisburg Essen are analysing this question with the new research project PREVENT. Virtimo supports PREVENT as a project partner and is participating in the implementation of a trainings software that aims to sensitize staff of safety institutions when dealing with Fake News.
“The focused spread of false information is an omnipresent problem in the digital age, which has brought devastating consequences, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic,” said Kaan Eyilmez, Research Assistant and the leading project supervisor at Virtimo. “That’s why we’re excited to support PREVENT as a project partner and work together with the research team to develop a training software.”
In the first step the researchers are analysing who is distributing desinformation in the internet and if the user is able to spot them. Subsequently they want to develop instruments for early detection of desinformation campaigns and possible countermeasures. In the process they want to further analyse the question whether a state influenced discussion on the internet is ethical.
In the final step, Virtimo is developing a uniform and secure cloud solution as a training software for staff of safety institutions. Here, the spread of disinformation campaigns will be simulated and the use of preventive measures will be practiced in different training scenarios. Real social media data from past crises is used to create the training environment. This generates a credible social network with authentic user behaviour.
Additional learning materials, developed by the collaborative partners with a focus on the legal and ethical reflection of the preventive measures, will enhance the learning environment. In addition, a pedagogical concept will be developed by the collaborative partners in combination with the new learning materials.
The research project will be funded by the BMBF with 1.6 million Euros. Next to the scientists of the University Duisburg Essen, who are coordinating the project, researchers of the Universities Paderborn, Köln, and Tübingen are part of the project as well.
More information to the research project PREVENT are available here.