Project funded by CDTI with funds from the European Union. The objective of the project is to build a tool that automatically addresses the problem of identifying fake news and allows the identification and delimitation of the user communities that propagate it. The objective is to monitor social networks and the main internet sites to detect fake news early, its propagation routes and the profile of its main propagators. Based on this information, the tool will provide countermeasures such as news aggregation along with the evidence that supports them, as well as the trusted communities and users they can help share and propagate, along with their level of credibility.

Social networks have fostered a new model of communication between people. However, events such as the Snowden data leaks or the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal have led to widespread distrust of people regarding social networks, to the point of creating a global campaign for the massive self-deletion of Facebook user accounts. Fake news and disinformation, botnets, and ultimately, manipulation, seem to be the order of the day at events such as Brexit, the US elections, the Catalan referendum or the diplomatic conflict in Qatar.

Misinformation can have disastrous implications not only on a social level, but also on an economic level. According to Forbes, in 2013 $130 billion was lost to the stock market in a matter of minutes after a tweet was posted about an “explosion” that had injured Barack Obama. The impact of disinformation also reaches the economic environment, in some cases such as the previous one, with a very negative effect.