Insights from community-governed platforms to cultivate a resilient election information ecosystem in Europe.
DEM-Debate studies the practices of community-governed platforms based on a distributed and transparent model of creating and sharing information online, and the lessons learnt about what works and what does not to improve transparency and resilience of the online information ecosystem.
The project focuses in particular on the 2024 European election as a sensitive scenario, and on Wikipedia as a paradigmatic and especially relevant case of community-governed platform.
Wikipedia is the largest existing free knowledge platform and the only non-commercial VLOP (Very Large Online Platform) designated under the DSA (Digital Service Act), visited daily by millions of users around the globe, and edited by thousands, in over 300 different languages.
The project’s findings, translated into policy recommendations, may benefit both the policymakers and the information ecosystem, including the Wikimedia communities and other community-based projects, proposing a new model of public interest internet based on transparency, reliability of sources and a decentralised governance.
Eurecat’s Big Data & Data Science Unit is responsible for the computational analysis, aimed at investigating community practices in different language editions on pages related to the EU election, such as articles on political parties and candidates.
The analysis of activity dynamics, conflict and controversies on these pages over time and across different countries and linguistic communities complements the legal analysis carried out by the University of Amsterdam.
General details
Project
DEM-Debate – Building an enabling environment for democratic debate
Programme and call for tender
Project funded by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF) managed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Related SDG
