Regulatory and other Solutions to Mitigate online Disinfomation (REMEDIS)

Engage researcher

Daphné Chapellier

Promoter

Marie Dufrasne (USL-B)

Collaborators

Alain Strowel (UCLouvain), Luc Desaunettes-Barbero (UCLouvain), Jean De Meyere (UCLouvain), Ariana Rossi (UniLu), Gabriele Lenzini (UniLu), Anastasia Sergeeva (UniLu), Yuwai Chuai (UniLu), Huiyun Tang (UniLu)

Website

https://projectremedis.wordpress.com/

Time span of the project

June 1^st, 2022 – June 1^st, 2026

Keywords

Disinformation, digital platforms, fake news, regulation, media literacy, fact-checking, journalism

Funding

Reasearch project PDR
Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg FNR

Description

REgulatory and other solutions to MitigatE online DISinformation (REMEDIS) is an interdisciplinary project combining research(ers) in digital law, social science, information and communication, history, and computer science. It aims to provide innovative regulatory frameworks and legally compliant socio-technical solutions to monitor online disinformation and its effects. REMEDIS will investigate these issues by working on specific use cases: post-truth discourses, non-scientific arguments (e.i. no-vax), conspiracy theories (e.i QAnon), astroturfing and disinformation threatening the informational diversity of citizens as well as their integration into society (relationships with political institutions and other citizens).

Research Objectives

With its focus on regulatory solutions, REMEDIS aims to offer new legal and non-legal instruments to better balance the social responsibility of online platforms with the freedom of expression of users. It intends to support a more responsible sharing of online content: for instance, legal frameworks can enhance a responsible use of social media when broadcasting health-related news affecting vulnerable populations; regulatory tools can impose full disclosure of the sources used in medical recommendations. With regards to technical solutions, REMEDIS intends to propose operational definitions of disinformation (e.g., fabricated news, junk science, hoax, etc. and in its distinction from misinformation), in alignment with the regulatory frameworks and in compliance with legal and ethical principles (e.g., freedom of speech, accountability, data protection, transparency, explainability of automated decisions). It will design legally-attentive procedures and protocols to (1) question the origin (including an update of the definition of the notion of “source” and its perceptions) and the integrity of a diversity of news, and (2) build measures and models of its process of disclosure, information flow and reception. It will achieve these goals using both observable public data and, innovatively, encrypted data and metadata.

Advanced cryptographic techniques are in fact available today to process encrypted data, thus enabling privacy protection beyond anonymity and even if data are lost or probed by curious “trusted” parties. Furthermore, in order to provide individuals with user-friendly interfaces to question the veracity of online claims, REMEDIS will develop multiple interface design prototypes through co-design methods   and validate these through user studies. Strengthening self-awareness and a critical approach to disinformation is an educational aspect that REMEDIS intends to support also, ultimately, for content-moderation activities and critical media education.