News Story

Misinformation at CHI 2021

Kiran Parmar, Thursday 13 May 2021

Part of the 2021 ACM CHI Virtual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the hands-on workshop Opinions, Intentions, Freedom of Expression,… , And Other Human Aspects Of Misinformation Online was held on 7th of May. It gathered multidisciplinary researchers from across the world (i.e. Canada, the US, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, Austria, Italy, and the UK), including a representative of WHO, a key organisation in the fight against the current infodemic.

Misinformation is a wicked problem. Therefore, different perspectives related to its detection and spread were discussed, including human aspects such as beliefs and the role of emotions in human reasoning, elements of trust, fact-checking, accountability, and social media platforms regulation as technical issues related to data harmonisation. A total of 9 research statements were accepted (http://events.kmi.open.ac.uk/misinformation/#programme).

The presentations and discussions were split into three clusters: Community and Values; 2. Policies and Regulations; and 3. Tools and Technical Solutions. In an engaging atmosphere, the discussions led to new insights on creating more ethical and impacting technical solutions.

Co-organised by KMi researchers Lara Piccolo and Tracie Farrell, the event was organised in partnership with Diotima Bertel (SYNYO GmbH) and Pinelopi Troullinou (Trilateral Research), integrating the EU projects Co-Infom, HERoS, CIMPLE and EUNOMIA.