VIGILANT · Vital IntelliGence to Investigate ILlegAl DisiNformaTion

Identifying, tracking and investigating online disinformation and other problematic content is an extremely complex problem. Many (European) Police Authorities (PAs) do not have access to any specialised tools or technologies to help them combat disinformation. Some of the better equipped PAs are using unsuitable off-the-shelf products that were designed to enable commercial companies to monitor social media chatter about their brands and products or to track the success of advertising campaigns. Such products are not capable of dealing with the complexities of disinformation nor do they provide advanced analysis tools and technologies tailored to the PAs needs. The VIGILANT project solves this problem. It is an integrated platform of advanced disinformation identification and analysis tools and technologies employing state-of-the-art AI methods which were developed as part of several highly successful FP7 and H2020 projects. They will be tailored to PAs use cases and needs, following an ethical-by-design and user-centric approach. In addition, social and behavioural aspects are also taken into account when designing tools and presenting results. VIGILANT covers disinformation from all major sources (e.g., major social media platforms, fake news websites), in all modalities (text, image, video) and in multiple languages. It is also suitable for investigating hate speech, violent nationalist or separatist movements, radicalisation, extremist groups, incels, loan wolfs, and other counter terrorism threats. The project also provides innovative solutions to leverage the knowledge and experience of other stakeholder organisations and (social) media companies. Finally, the project includes training for PAs in the use of VIGILANT and in conducting disinformation investigations as part of a long term sustainable training network. The interdisciplinary consortium includes expertise from social sciences and humanities, ethics, computer science commercial and four European PAs.