University of Urbino
Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies
Fabio Giglietto is a Full Professor of Internet Studies at the Università di Urbino Carlo Bo, where he also earned his doctorate. He currently teaches courses on Generative AI and Media and Digital Social Network Analysis. His scientific activity is located at the intersection of computational social science, the analysis of digital platforms, and political communication. A core focus of his research involves the study of information disorders and coordinated behaviour on social media, examining their impact on public discourse and democratic processes.
He is the founder and coordinator of the Mapping Italian News Research Program (MINE), active at the University of Urbino since 2017. MINE serves as an institutional umbrella for his research line, investigating Italian media coverage and the impact of social media on electoral processes, public opinion, and health information through a succession of externally funded sub-projects. Within MINE, Professor Giglietto co-developed CooRnet, an open-source R package that introduced the pioneering Coordinated Link Sharing Behavior (CLSB) detection method. Following the shutdown of Meta's CrowdTangle on August 14, 2024, CooRnet is now discontinued at the operational level, though its CLSB methodology continues to inform downstream tools like the independently maintained CooRTweet R package, of which Professor Giglietto is not a co-developer.
On the European front, Professor Giglietto has played significant roles in collaborative research initiatives. He served as WP4 Leader for the Horizon Europe project vera.ai, which concluded in October 2025 and focused on developing AI-based tools for countering disinformation. He was also a Partner on PROMPT, a European Commission project concluded in February 2026, dedicated to monitoring disinformation narratives across Europe. While all externally funded MINE sub-projects have now concluded, the MINE programme itself persists as the institutional framework for his ongoing research line. He is an active member of the International Communication Association (ICA), the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), and the Italian Association for Political Communication, having also served on the board of Research Committee 51 on Sociocybernetics of the International Sociological Association (ISA RC51).
Giglietto, F., & Marino, G. (2026). Beyond the share button: How partisan alignment, journalistic quality, and algorithmic governance shape what millions see on Facebook. Platforms & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624261452529
Giglietto, F., & Puschmann, C. (2026). From the Wild West to the Walled Garden. M/C Journal. https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.3257
Giglietto, F., Terenzi, M., Chakraborty, A., & Marino, G. (2026). Synthetic seduction: Evolving visual persuasion in coordinated online gambling promotion with generative {AI}. Countering Disinformation in the Era of Generative AI. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-11782-3_4
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
Research programme active at the University of Urbino since 2017, investigating Italian media coverage and the impact of social media on electoral processes, public opinion and health information. MINE has hosted a succession of externally funded sub-projects (listed separately below). All sub-grants are now concluded; the programme remains active as the institutional and intellectual umbrella for the PI's ongoing research line, with no active external grant at present.
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European Commission project (DG CNECT) dedicated to monitoring disinformation narratives in 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. MINE sub-project.
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Horizon Europe project developing AI-based tools to assist journalists and fact-checkers in verifying multimedia content and countering disinformation. As WP4 Leader, Fabio Giglietto led the work package focused on detection of coordinated behaviour and inauthentic networks spreading misleading content. MINE sub-project.
Learn moreRecent scholarly contributions delve into the dynamics of online public discourse and the evolving role of digital platforms. Research highlights include exploring temporal dynamics in digital trace data for communication research, reflections on the 'death of Twitter' and its implications for public debate, and investigations into how political actors, such as Brazilian parliamentarians, establish epistemic authority during times of crisis.
Read moreKey discussions in recent academic discourse center on the evolving challenges of social media data access for research, especially concerning electoral processes. Featured analyses address the 'moving targets' in data access policies, the impact of platform permissions and proficiency on election research, the design of algorithms to address social norm misperceptions during elections, and the infrastructure problems associated with multi-platform electoral discourse analysis.
Read moreA collection of significant studies examines the pervasive issues of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and online extremism. Research explores disinformation as narratives in hybrid media ecosystems, how individuals engage in symbolic boundary work during 'Great Reset' debates, the 'hostile misinformation effect' driven by ideological congruence, and the connectivity and hybridisation within far-right online networks, including analyses of groups like the Proud Boys. Further insights consider media's role in disseminating conspiracy beliefs and an expert assessment of challenges and interventions in digital media.
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