The Bubble machine

Much is still unclear about disinformation, the deliberate dissemination of information aimed at misleading or strongly influencing people. Disinformation is one of the topics the professorship has been working on for some time and the award for 'Grip op desinformatie' ties in nicely with the research project on filter bubbles explains lecturer-researcher at the Responsible IT professorship Yuri Westplat. Pascal Wiggers and lecturer-researcher Marcio Fuckner developed a simulation: an online world with virtual users and a counterfeit algorithm with the aim of producing a filter bubble. From the SIDN fund, we received a grant that allows us to develop a public online version of the mechanisms of disinformation. Journalists and activists can use this to see how influencing by algorithms actually works. Meanwhile, seven students from two different CMD minors have started the technical preliminary research and development of the website. Next, a user survey is being conducted with journalists. We are using these recommendations for further research to understand more about how the technology works, how disinformation is produced, disseminated and amplified. A great example of Research Trough Design, where scientific research questions are collected, translated into a design challenge and converted back into student learning objectives.' Do you want to know more about the project? Contact Yuri Westplat, y.westplat@hva.nl