Hatedemics

ABOUT HATEDEMICS

“HATEDEMICS - Hampering hate speech and disinformation through AI-based technologies to prevent and combat polarisation and the spread of racist, xenophobic and intolerant speech and conspiracy theories”

Start 1st April 2024

End 31st March 2026

The Aim is to : strengthen the preventive and reactive measures against hate speech and
disinformation online. It aims to empower NGOs/CSOs, factcheckers, public authorities, and youngsters as activists to effectively prevent and combat polarisation, the spread of racist,
xenophobic and intolerant speech, as well as conspiracy theories.

The primary objective is: to address online hate and fake news, with a specific emphasis on tackling the often overlooked and interrelated issues that intersect between hate speech and disinformation.

Specifically, we will raise the awareness and improve the skills and critical thinking of the above key stakeholders, by advancing AI-based technologies that:

1) monitor, detect and record hate speech and disinformation on social media;

2) estimate the ‘hatedemics risk’ as the sum of the ‘hate speech and infodemics risks’, i.e. the online exposure to (potential) hate and misinformative messages;

3) create dialogue-based counter-narratives that support professionals and activists, and facilitate advanced reporting activities by implementing an effective human-in-the-loop approach, where automated suggestions are always validated by human operators, who always have the final say on the posted content;

4) automatically assess behavioural changes determined by the counter-narrative intervention. The combination of these technologies will allow for more focused and timely online
interventions (i.e. advanced targeted search followed by relevant textual suggestions), resulting in a more efficient and effective professional and volunteer effort.