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 moreAn array of significant new research highlights the complex dynamics of social media and digital platforms. Topics covered include temporal dynamics in digital trace data, the ongoing challenges of social media data access for research, and the multi-platform analysis of electoral discourse. Other studies shed light on the connectivity and hybridisation of online extremism, the decline of public debate online, and how parliamentarians establish epistemic authority in crisis situations.
Read moreThe persistent challenge of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories within the digital media ecosystem is a central theme in recently highlighted research. Papers analyze disinformation as narratives in hybrid media, the symbolic boundary work employed by individuals in “Great Reset” debates across platforms, and the hostile misinformation effect driven by ideological congruence. Additional studies explore how media contribute to the dissemination of conspiracy beliefs and offer international expert assessments on current challenges, trends, and interventions in combating digital misinformation.
Read moreInsights into the societal implications of artificial intelligence and algorithms are gaining prominence, with recent papers exploring the redesign of algorithms to address social norm misperceptions during elections. Other significant contributions delve into the political economy and accountability of AI, the imaginative landscape of AI and Silicon Valley's “quiet futuring,” and the economics of AI. Further research examines the framing of Google’s AI Overviews and advocates for integrating social theory as a structural prior for agentic AI systems.
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