Disinformation poses an increasing challenge to the formation of public opinion. While Article 5 of the German Constitution (GG) protects ‘freedom of speech’, there are also limits to this right, especially when disinformation contains content that is relevant under criminal law.

The following description of the third pilot shows how the police might use tools from the FERMI project to assess community resilience and respond to a left-wing extremist threat scenario in Munich.

This scenario highlights the potential of the FERMI platform as a set of tools to counter extremism-related disinformation and maintain public order at high-stakes events like the Eurotop summit in Brussels.

The first pilot focused on testing FERMI’s Spread Analyser in the context of right-wing extremism in a situation where there was a hybrid operation and disinformation is a key cause of distrust and possibly radicalisation of individuals or small groups.

Recent attacks on politicians in Europe signal a rise in politically motivated violence in part driven by disinformation. Media literacy interventions can help increase societal resilience to disinformation and subsequently protect democracy.

This article gives an overview of two ongoing 3-year Horizon Europe sister projects, VIGILANT and FERMI that both develop technical platforms to support law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the fight against disinformation campaigns, including those that target free and fair elections.

In an era defined by the pervasive influence of social media and the expansive realm of cyberspace, the proliferation of online disinformation has emerged as a critical concern. The ramifications extend far beyond disinformation, encompassing the facilitation of crime-related activities that pose significant threats to societal well-being and security. The FERMI Community Resilience and Socioeconomic Watch epitomises a proactive approach towards bolstering resilience and mitigating digital risks.

The growing spread of disinformation has become an inescapable phenomenon to be reckoned with. Looking at the latest evidence, what does this trend mean for society? And what can we do moving forward?

The FERMI project is an ambitious undertaking with a clear-cut objective: to create and validate technologies that address the ever-evolving challenge of disinformation and its tangible consequences. The project is organised around two key technical work packages: the FERMI Core Technology Offerings and the User Interfaces and Platform Integration. These facets are intrinsically interconnected in their pursuit of delivering the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of the FERMI Platform within the first year of the project.

What are politically motivated crimes? How can we coherently measure such crimes across the EU? With consistent statistics in the field of (violent) extremism and their implications for research, this article calls for a long overdue public discussion on the matter.