PRODEMINFO (https://sks.to/prodeminfo) is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and aims to gain a greater understanding of people’s perception of truth in an age rife with fake news and conspiracy theories. The project, which runs from October 2021 until September 2026, is a collaboration between the University of Bristol (UK), Graz University of Technology (Austria) and the University of Potsdam (Germany). Previous studies have shown how social media is a tool exploited by politicians to share false, potentially dangerous information, in the guise of authenticity. This project will test different techniques to protect people against misinformation depending on the individual’s views of what “truth” actually means. It ultimately aims to build tools to protect democracy in Europe by drawing a strategic arc from the threat arising from the insurgent populist ontology of truth to the development of protective solutions that can be rolled out at scale online.
[…]