University of Urbino
Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies
Fabio Giglietto, PhD, is Full Professor of Internet Studies at the Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo. He teaches courses such as Generative AI and Media and Digital Social Network Analysis. His research explores the intricate relationships between social systems, media, and digital technologies, with a focus on the theory of information, communication, and society. Professor Giglietto has published extensively in leading journals such as the Journal of Communication, Information, Communication & Society, the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Social Media + Society, and Social Science Computer Review. According to Google Scholar, his publications have been cited over 2200 times.
Professor Giglietto's current research interests include coordinated behavior detection and multimodal narratives, as well as the challenges of social media data access in the post-API age. Actively engaged in discussions surrounding platform policies and research methods, he examines the distortion of public opinion and Meta's policy changes regarding inauthentic behavior. Recent work includes analysis of Meta's political content reduction policy and its impact on the reach of Italian Members of Parliament on Facebook. This research revealed a significant reduction in visibility for mainstream politicians, while extremist accounts were able to compensate through increased posting volume. He is also a leading developer at Coornet.org.
Professor Giglietto's work extends to the EU-funded PROMPT initiative, addressing disinformation narratives across Europe. He also leads the Mapping Italian News Research Program (MINE), investigating Italian news media coverage and the impact of social media on Italian elections. He is involved in the EU-funded Horizon Europe project VERAAI, developing AI-based tools to assist journalists and fact-checkers in verifying multimedia content and combating disinformation, where he focuses on the detection of coordinated behavior and inauthentic networks spreading misleading content. He actively engages with academic and professional communities on platforms like BlueSky (@fabiogiglietto.bsky.social) and Mastodon (@fabiogiglietto@aoir.social), fostering dialogue around the evolving landscape of Internet Studies.
Giglietto, F. (2025). "A Pretty Blunt Approach": Meta's Political Content Reduction Policy and Italian Parliamentarians' Facebook Visibility. Center for Open Science. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/8dqag_v2
Giglietto, F. (2025). The State of Social Media Research APIs & Tools in the Digital Service Act Era. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16269197
Giglietto, F. (2025). Manipolazione dei media ed influenza digitale. Sfide, tecnologie e risposte. .
Giglietto, F. (2025). Viralità. .
Giglietto, F. (2025). "A Pretty Blunt Approach": Meta's Political Content Reduction Policy and Italian Parliamentarians' Facebook Visibility. Center for Open Science. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/8dqag_v1
An EU-funded Horizon Europe project that developed advanced AI-based tools to assist journalists and fact-checkers in verifying multimedia content and combating disinformation. As Work Package 4 leader, I focused on the detection of coordinated behavior and inauthentic networks spreading misleading content.
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An EU-funded initiative focused on detecting and analyzing disinformation narratives across Europe, addressing sensitive issues including the war in Ukraine, LGBTQI+ rights, and European elections through the development of language models, monitoring dashboards, and educational resources for fact-checkers and journalists.
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A research program investigating Italian news media coverage and the impact of social media on Italian elections, leveraging data from Social Science One and grant funding from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).
Learn moreNew research highlights a 72% reach reduction for Italian Members of Parliament on Facebook following Meta's political content policy change. The effects were detected 10 months prior to the global rollout. Interestingly, extremists saw a 14% increase in reach during the same period. Data and code for replicating the study are publicly available, inviting further research in other countries.
Read moreRecent scholarly articles recommended for reading cover a range of topics, including the EU's Digital Services Act, the impact of generative AI on trust and information verification, network propaganda on Sky News Australia, cross-platform discourse networks, social media manipulation and coordinated activities.
Read moreA new tool, FG's Research Radio, has been developed to generate AI-driven audio deep dives into computational social science papers. The tool pulls directly from a PaperPile reading list and the code is open source.
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