Recognising, Understanding, and Counteracting Disinformation: New Research Project Launched at the Faculty of Media
Democratic societies depend on reliable information. But the rapid spread of misinformation through digital platforms is overwhelming for both users and current verification systems. Individuals who want to combat disinformation effectively need tools that can detect increasingly sophisticated technical forgeries and allow users to critically evaluate content. The ClaimGuard and PADSE research projects at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s Faculty of Media are involved in the in the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space’s current funding programme and developing new solutions for dealing with digital misinformation.
The ClaimGuard project is developing an app with Jr. Prof. Maurice Jakesch that supports users with fact-checking through direct interaction with an AI system. Instead of simply categorising information as true of false, a dialogical process takes place in which content is jointly examined, contextualised and scrutinised. The app identifies key statements, provides relevant contextual information and helps to resolve uncertainties one step at a time. The goal is for people to be actively involved in the verification process and to improve their ability to evaluate information independently.
PADSE, a project in which Prof. Benno Stein is involved, is dedicated to the detection and and analysis of manipulated spoken content in digital communication. The project focusses particularly on deepfakes and artificially generated audio content, both of which are increasingly being used in disinformation campaigns. The project is developing methods to detect these types of manipulation based on individual voice and speech patterns and classifying them according to their content. The goal is not only to highlight technical anomalies, but also to contextualise and assess the origins of the content.
Both projects are part of the nationwide »Desinformation − Erkennen. Verstehen. Abwehren.« initiative, which is funding eleven projects. The participating project teams met in Berlin on 16 March to mark the launch of the initiative and the start of their collaboration. The BMFTR presented funding certificates as part of the event. These mark the official launch of the projects and draw attention to their significance within the national research programme.
With the ClaimGuard and PADSE projects, the Faculty of Media is strengthening its research in the field of digital audiences; it is also helping to tackle disinformation from a technical perspective and better understand its social implications. The projects combine approaches from computer science, design, and the social sciences and are developing tools to provide concrete support for dealing with digital information.