Although the phenomenon of misinformation is not new, it has taken on major political and social dimensions due to the role of online social media and the impact of the Internet on the dissemination of information. The Department of Communication and Internet Studies at the Cyprus University of Technology, as the first academic department of its kind in Cyprus, contributes to the effort to explore ways of addressing misinformation by participating as a partner in the “Co-creating Misinformation Resilient Societies” (grant agreement 770302) funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme.
Co-inform, which received a grant of more than 4 million euros for three years (2018-2021), brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and experts in computer science, behavioural science, and social sciences, in an effort to fight misinformation through the development of digital tools for identifying fake news, understanding and predicting which misinformation content is likely to be spread across online platforms, and contributing to the decrease of misinformation and formulation of misconceptions. These tools will be piloted in three of the participating countries and the results will be publicly disseminated.
The consortium involves the following partners:
- Stockholm University (Coordinators), Sweden
- Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
- Open University UK, United Kingdom
- University of Koblenz, Germany
- FactCheckNI, Ireland
- Expert System Iberia, Spain
- International Hellenic University, Greece
- International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Austria
- Scytl, Spain
The Department of Communication and Internet Studies leads the evaluation work package of the Co-inform project, and participates in all of the work packages. The local team consists of Associate Professor Eleni A. Kyza, Assistant Professor Evangelos Karapanos, Assistant Professor Dionysis Panos, and PhD students Andria Agesilaou, Christiana Varda, Loukas Konstantinou, Melina Karageorgiou and Markos Souropetsis.
Find out more about the Co-inform project by visiting the official website or the social network sites:
