Discover HaDEA-managed projects fighting disinformation

One of the priorities of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union (January – June 2025) is the development of modern, secure digital services to mitigate information manipulation and drive digital transformation. Artificial intelligence (AI) and cutting-edge technology are considered to play a key role in this transformation which should be assessed for their economic and social impact to smooth market adaptation to regulatory change.

In the light of the above, the Polish Presidency has organized an event on the impact of AI on Media and creative industries on 24-25 April that has covered AI in the context of the fight against disinformation, as well as the impact of AI on the creative sector.

The Digital Europe Programme (DEP) and previously the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF Telecom) programme have funded actions aimed at supporting independent regional hubs for analysis of digital media ecosystems, including the impact of AI in disinformation. Furthermore, DEP continues combating disinformation with the publication of a call aimed at funding the European Network of Factcheckers, which will deepen the language coverage and operational capacity of factchecking in Europe, whose deadline to receive proposals is on 2 September 2025.

Similarly, DEP have supported actions in the digitisation of the cultural heritage sector where AI tools have been developed and put at disposal of cultural heritage institutions. 

Some examples of projects are illustrated below.

• The Action DE FACTO (Media and Information Observatory/Observatoire des médias et de l’Information)  set up a network of detection, response and analysis of disinformation in the media space in France. The fundamental objective was to facilitate swift and discerning responses to disinformation campaigns, in alignment with the European approach. To achieve these objectives, the action’s activities were structured under five key operational objectives: Collaborate, Respond, Consider the Bigger Picture, Empower, and Inform. To achieve this, the Action implemented a fact-check enrichment process through a series of in-depth surveys, thematic analyses and studies based on large volumes of data and computational social science, with special focus on AI and its role in generating disinformation.
• The IDMO (Italian Digital Media Observatory) Action is a comprehensive initiative that ran until March 2024. Its main goal was to combat disinformation and enhance media literacy across Italy and the European Union. One of its three objectives was the development of an operational Italian Observatory on Social Media analysis to fight disinformation, educate citizens and professionals and inform policymakers. The hub provided journalists, fact checkers, students and other Observatory members with essential resources for analysing and combating disinformation.

Moreover, the Hub rolled out an impactful media literacy program comprised of various initiatives aimed at enhancing digital and media literacy among different demographics with a focus on AI and its use in media communication.

• AI4Culture project has developed the AI4Cultural platform, which acts as an online point of reference and capacity building hub for the application of AI technologies in the cultural heritage sector. The platform offers access to a selection of AI tools that can be used in tasks of interest to the sector. The platform also offers access to a suite of 8 AI tools that can be employed to serve various application scenarios relevant to cultural heritage institutions and interoperable with the European data space of cultural heritage.
• The DE-BIAS project addresses the harmful and derogatory terms that persist in many collections by developing an AI-driven tool to automatically detect and flag offensive terms in five languages, providing context and suggesting appropriate alternatives. This tool helps update cultural collection descriptions by creating vocabularies focused on migration, colonial history, gender, sexual identity, and ethnicity. DE-BIAS fosters collaboration between cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) and traditionally excluded minorities, involving them in creating a more inclusive vocabulary. The tool is embedded in the European data space of cultural heritage and referenced on the AI4Culture platform.

Background 

The first generation of the Connecting Europe Facility ‘Telecom’ (2014-2020)EN••• facilitated the cross-border interaction between public administrations, businesses and citizens, by deploying Digital Service Infrastructures (DSI) and broadband networks.

The Digital Europe Programme aims to build the strategic digital capacities of the EU and to facilitate the wide deployment of digital technologies. With an overall budget of €7.5 billion, out of which €0.8 billion is managed by HaDEA, the programme will support investments in the following sectors:

• High Performance Computing
• Cloud, data and Artificial Intelligence
• Cybersecurity
• Advanced digital skills
• Accelerating best use of technologies