DESINformATIon early detection of dangerous online news trends
Disinformation represents a major challenge for our society. Concerted disinformation campaigns are one aspect of hybrid threats, which can aim to disrupt or damage specific critical infrastructures - such as the security of distribution of energy sources, raw materials or medicines - or to undermine wider critical infrastructures such as democratic institutions and destroy trust in them or their representatives.
Recognising disinformation campaigns in good time therefore makes an essential contribution to resilience in the face of such threats. However, there are currently hardly any tools available to actively recognise disinformation campaigns at an early stage. Those affected often find out about their involvement far too late, which limits their ability to respond effectively. Often all that remains is damage limitation. Recognising such trends at an early stage would create room for manoeuvre, e.g. to develop suitable counterstatements. DesinFact aims to improve the state of research on the automatic detection of disinformation trends, to identify gaps in technical, legal and ethical areas and to develop suitable approaches to enable such a system.
The focus of DesinFact's research activities is on increasing trustworthiness in technical, legal and ethical matters. Methods for measurably increasing the quality and explainability of decisions are to be researched. These methods should be understandable for both experts and operational operators.
One aspect of increasing accuracy is linking the analysis of network structures and communication patterns with content-based analysis. To this end, DesinFact will research methods for recognising dissemination channels and key actors in disinformation networks and link them with content evaluation methods. Another focus of DesinFact is research into the possible public provision of a system for recognising disinformation. Such a system should enable citizens to have online content analysed for disinformation. DesinFact will research socio-technical aspects that are relevant for an adequate introduction of such a technology. Within project led by Alexander Schindler (AIT Center for Digital Safety and Security, DSS) the team from the Centre for Innovation Systems and Policy will investigate which ethical framework conditions are relevant for the sustainable public deployment of such a platform, as well as which ethical aspects have not yet been considered in current debates and legal requirements (e.g. AI Act).
Key Words: disinformation, AI, ethics, law, AI Act
Start: 01/2024
Duration: 24 months
Funded by: FFG
Contact: Peter Biegelbauer
