As part of the creation of a European network of regional hubs coordinated by the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), 2 new observatories based in Belgium (EDMO BELUX) and the Czech Republic (CEDMO) have recently been inaugurated, with the aim of identifying, researching and prioritising the most critical sources and causes of information disruptions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and the wider BELUX region.
In each Observatory, the ATC, as an active partner of the European Commission’s action plan to combat disinformation, will provide all the appropriate tools to verify a variety of claims or fact-checking. Specifically, the members of the Observatories have access to the Truly Media platform for the analysis and verification of digital content as distributed online, including the thorough profiling of active Twitter accounts.
ATC is also responsible for the design and development of the nodes’ websites (in 4 languages for CEDMO, in 5 for EDMO BELUX). In addition, ATC will create the CEDMO digital repository, which will be the central database for the storage of all results generated by its members.
In these Observatories, fact-checkers, training experts for the evaluation of news information and academic researchers will collaborate.
More specifically, within the framework set by the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), CEDMO aims to conduct multidisciplinary research to detect disinformation phenomena using artificial intelligence, to empower the general population with reporting assessment capabilities and to develop fact verification platforms. It is also the first step in the development of a European Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence.
EDMO BELUX will conduct OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) surveys on disinformation campaigns, develop similar media literacy actions and are expected to publish studies on the impact of disinformation campaigns, as well as annual assessments of the effectiveness of platforms on disinformation.