From November 7 to 9, at the Central Military Club in Sofia, the Sofia Information Integrity Forum 2024 will take place – an event that unites experts from various fields to discuss the most current technologies and strategies for combating disinformation. The forum is co-funded by the Open Society Institute – Sofia and the European Union as part of the initiative “Europe Against Antidemocratic Propaganda,” supported by the “Rights and Values” project (ProEUvaluesBG). The event is organized by the Human and Social Studies Foundation – Sofia (HSSF), the Centre for the study of Democracy, GATE Institute, Identrics, Ontotext, Sensika, and Code, and will be conducted in English.
Leading names in the field who will participate in the event include:
Atanas Zapryanov, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Bulgaria
Dana Spinant, Director-General, Directorate-General for Communication, European Commission
Todor Galev, Director of Research, Center for the Study of Democracy
Dimitar Vatsov, President, HSS Foundation - Sofia
Keith Peter Kiely, GATE Institute, Sofia University “St. Kiment Ohridski”
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Mark Galeotti, Mayak Intelligence
Moderator: Dimitar Vatsov, HSSF
How to Win the Information War. Russia and its Network in Germany
Susanne Spahn, Political Scientist, Historian and Journalist
"The Global South against the Collective West" - Do We Have a New Discursive Front
Dimitar Vatsov, HSSF
The Propaganda Crescendo and the Spiral of Silence!
Milena Yakimova, HSSF
Moderator: Veronika Dimitrova, HSSF
Media capture in CEE: models of emerging news ecologies and safeguarding epistemic rights
Marius Dragomir, Director, Media and Journalism Research Center
Central Europe between the imperial Scylla of "Russkiy mir" and the Charybdis of "post-national European identity"
Przemmyslaw Zurawski vel Grajewski, Security, Defence and Foreign Policy Section Coordinator, Chancellery of the President, Poland
Building resilience to Russian information manipulation and electoral interference in Moldova
Andrei Curăraru, Co-founder & Policy and security expert, Watchdog.md
Transforming Europe’s Media Landscape: Building Resilience and Safeguarding Independence
Maria Stoyanova, Analyst, Center for the Study of Democracy
Anti-EU disinformation in Romania in the context of good governance: narratives, impact and solutions
Bianca Toma, Project Manager, Romanian Center for European Policies
Building Europe's Media Democracy Shield: Countering Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference
Amaury Lesplingart, CTO, Checkfirst Network
Moderator: Goran Georgiev, Analyst, Center for the Study of Democracy
China's efforts to construct its narrative infrastructure in Southeast Europe
Vladimir Shopov, European Council on Foreign Relations
Resilience Against Disinformation in Wartime: Lessons from Ukraine
Halyna Tanai, LMF, NGO Lviv Media Forum
Why is Serbia embracing Russia - and is it actually doing it at all?
Milorad Ivanovic, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
Moderator: Ralitsa Stoycheva, Media Programme South East Europe, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Andy Carvin, DFRLab (online)
Moderator: Ruslan Trad, DFRLab
Battlefield Brain: Cognitive Turf Wars
Andy Stoycheff, NTCenter
Listening to youth – the value of based interventions
Cristina Lupu, Center for Independent Journalism
Disinformation narratives in the Romanian and Moldova context and Media Literacy
Laura Burtan, Funky Citizens
Moderator: Irina Nedeva, AEJ
Understanding Disinformation: The Pivotal Role of Media Analysis in Ensuring Information Integrity
Mariya Yurukova, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Information Disorder: Getting Ahead of Hindsight
Nesin Veli, Identrics
vera.ai Tools for Detecting Synthetic Content
Olga Papadopoulou, Centre for Research & Technology, Hellas (CERTH)
vera.ai Tools for Textual Content and Meme Analysis
Olesya Razuvayevskaya, The University of Sheffield
Moderator: Nikola Tulechki, Ontotext
MIL in Bulgarian education through every subject
Angel Georgiev, Sindeo
Wikipedia as an example of Participatory Governance: A Study of Information Resilience and Public Information Resources
Iglika Ivanova, GATE & Media Literacy Coalition
Politics and Truth – Uses and Abuses of LLMs
Garvan Walshe, Article7 – Intelligence for Democrats
Myths & monsters: disinformation as a storytelling technique
Joanna Elmy, Toest (online)
Moderator: Irina Nedeva, AEJ
Strategic Communications and (Counter-)Disinformation: Simply a Question of Language?
Dr. Neville Bolt, Sympodium Institute for Strategic Communications
Russia and China FIMI activities in the Western Balkan region
Miroslav Sazdovski, The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats
Moderators: Dimitar Vatsov and Veronika Dimitrova, HSSF
Beyond messaging: Telegram's role since February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
Sayyara Mammadova, DFRLab
Exposing Russian information warfare: tactics, tricks and elections
Valentin Chatelet, DFRLab
Final words before the storm
Ruslan Trad, DFRLab
Moderator: Ruslan Trad, DFRLab
Gendered disinformation against Ukrainian women refugees in Bulgaria
Kristina Tsabala, Analyst, Center for the Study of Democracy
Gender and Identity Disinformation: The case study of Armenia
Kate Llewellyn, Zinc Network
TFGBV against women in politics and public life in Georgia
Teona Dalakishvili, Senior Program Officer, Transform Program, IREX
Uncovering gendered disinformation in Polish cyberspace
Eliza Kotowska, Project Coordinator & Analyst, Instytut Kościuszki, (online)
Anti-LGBTI+ rhetoric as a tool for encroachment on civic space
Boyan Zahariev, Programme Director, Open Society Institute
Anna Arevadze, ForSet
Moderator: Gloria Trifonova, Center for the Study of Democracy
Building Resilience in Public Administration and Society
Georgi Georgiev, Ministry of Defense
Social and Collective Drivers of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference
Alexander Politov, Center for the Study of Democracy
AI against disinformation
Dmytro Bilash, Co-founder and CBDO, Osavul
Achieving Information Integrity Through Cognitive Security
Ludmilla Huntsman, Cognitive Security Alliance
Algorithms of Deception: How Platforms are Struggling to Combat AI-Generated Disinformation
Andrii Paziuk, National Aviation University, Ukraine
Moderator: Todor Galev, Center for the Study of Democracy
Challenges for Communication: Health Issues in the Face of Refugee Crisis and the Exacerbation of Disinformation
Ludmila Hamplová, Strategic Communications at the Czech Department of Public Health Protection
Decoding the Damage: Uncovering the Hidden Complexities of Disinformation in Emergency Responses
Jaroslav Valuch, Transitions
Moderator: Ruslan Trad, DFRLab
Cyber Shockwave Exercises: Countering Cybrid Operations and Disinformation Campaigns
George Sharkov, IICT-BAS
Disinformation and the Institutional Response: Deficiency analysis
Iliyana Marinkova, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Institutional weakness as a key determinant in the “imported” fake news spreading strategies: Case study of North Macedonia
Mitko Arnaudov, Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade
Malign foreign influence in Armenia and possibilities to tackle it
Armen Grigoryan, Centre for Policy Studies
Moderator: Velizar Shalamanov, IICT-BAS
Gen AI for social media analysis: game changer or a buzzword?
Andriy Kusyy, LetsData
AI in Action: Revealing the hidden structure of disinformation narratives
Andrey Tagarev, Ontotext
Transformer models and generative AI applications: A case study on stakeholder and narrative analysis of traditional and social media coverage in the context of armed conflict in the Middle East
Elena Mihalska, Commetric
Day Zero Dynamics: Narrative Formation and Algorithmic Influence in the first 24 Hours of the Southport Stabbings
Vassil Velichkov, Sensika
Moderators: Todor Kiriakov, A Data Pro & Yolina Petrova, Identrics
Collective Subconsciousness and Economic Disinformation
Krassen Stanchev, Institute for Market Economics
Russian narratives and the social vulnerability of Bulgarians
Boryana Dimitrova, Alfa Research
Manipulations of Public Communication Beyond “Fake News”. (Meta)deliberation as Antidote
Plamen Makariev, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Main Narratives of Propaganda and Disinformation against EU
Veronika Dimitrova, Luborir Donchev, Valentin Valkanov, Maya Dimitrova, Deyan Paskalev, HSSF
The Digital Concentration Camp: How Anti-Democratic Propaganda Uses Conspiracy Theory
Valentin Valkanov, HSSF
Moderator: Milena Yakimova, HSSF
Navigating the Informational Landscape: Gramsci's Hegemony and the Multitude in Post-Communist Bulgaria
Keith Peter Kiely, GATE Institute
Qualitative and quantitative framework for tackling disinformation
Boyan Dafov, GATE Institute
Historical revisionism as TikTok propaganda, Grand Pro-Putin Narratives in the Black Sea Region
Madalina Voinea, Expert Forum
The future, the spread of information and democratic values - Are we using the right approach?! - Perspectives of the Western Balkans
Katerina Veljanovska, MIT University – Skopje, Faculty of Security Sciences
Moderator: Todor Galev, Center for the Study of Democracy
Sayyara Mammadova, DFRLab
Moderator: Dimitar Vatsov, HSSF
How our Early Warning System Helps Newsrooms Stay Ahead of Disinformation Trends
Maksym Eristavi, Disinfo Task Force
Boosting our Partners’ Editorial Strategies and Harnessing Expertise across Borders
Ludmila Hamplová, Science+
What we’ve Learned about the most Disinfo-vulnerable Audiences and how to Reach Them
Mykola Okhotnik, Science+
How a Successful Project with Science+ Transformed one Newsroom’s Approach to Audience Engagement
Cătălin Gomboș, Science+
Discussion Moderator: Maksym Eristavi, Disinfo Task Force
This event takes place with the financial support of the following initiatives, projects and programs: the initiative “Europe against anti-democratic propaganda” (Project “Rights and Values”, financed by European Union and Open Society Institute – Sofia); BROD (Digital Europe program under contract No: 101083730), vera.ai (Horizon Europe, Research & Innovation program, under contract No: 101070093), “Social Vulnerability and Propaganda” (Financed by America for Bulgaria Foundation) and Media Programme South East Europe of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, of the European Executive Agency for Scientific Research, Open Society Institute – Sofia, America for Bulgaria Foundation, Media Programme South East Europe of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for them.
The Forum is part of the program of the European Solidarity Festival.
