University of Urbino
Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies
Fabio Giglietto is Full Professor of Internet Studies at the Università di Urbino Carlo Bo, where he also earned his doctorate. His research operates at the intersection of computational social science, digital platform analysis, and political communication, with a particular focus on coordinated behavior and information disorders. Within the classroom, he translates these cutting-edge research areas into practice by teaching courses on Generative AI and Media as well as Digital Social Network Analysis. Through these academic and instructional efforts, he examines how digital systems shape public discourse and modern social structures.
Since 2017, he has served as the founder and coordinator of the Mapping Italian News Research Program (MINE). This initiative serves as an institutional umbrella for his research line, having hosted a succession of externally funded sub-projects investigating public opinion, health information, and electoral processes. While these competitive projects have concluded and no external grants are currently active, his recent European engagements include serving as the WP4 Leader for the Horizon Europe project vera.ai, which concluded in 2025, and as a partner on the PROMPT consortium, which wrapped up in early 2026. Both projects focused on identifying and mitigating disinformation narratives across Europe.
As part of his methodological contributions, he co-developed CooRnet, an open-source R package that pioneered the Coordinated Link Sharing Behavior detection method used globally by researchers and fact-checkers. Following the shutdown of Meta's CrowdTangle in August 2024, CooRnet was discontinued at the operational level. However, the core methodology lives on through CooRTweet, an independent, downstream R package maintained by other researchers that continues to detect coordinated social media behavior across modern platforms. Through these methodological innovations, his work has significantly advanced the empirical study of coordinated manipulation online.
Beyond his academic research, he is a founding partner of Digit Srl, a benefit-corporation spin-off of the University of Urbino Carlo Bo that designs digital platforms dedicated to civic participation, social innovation, sustainability, and scientific dissemination. He is also highly active in the international scientific community, holding memberships in the International Communication Association, the Association of Internet Researchers, and the Italian Association for Political Communication. Additionally, he has contributed to the governance of his field by serving on the board of the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics within the International Sociological Association.
Marino, G., Paroni, B., & Giglietto, F. (2026). Measuring partisan community dynamics: a longitudinal analysis of affective engagement in pro-Bolsonaro Facebook networks. Information, Communication & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2026.2696929
Giglietto, F. (2026). VERA-AI Alert: Self-updating detection of coordinated sharing behaviour on Facebook. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21234935
Giglietto, F., Graham, T., & Righetti, N. (2026). Navigating Coordination and Inauthentic Behaviour. The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003359524-24
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
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.
Learn more
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.
Learn more
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 moreA new longitudinal study co-authored with Giada Marino and Bruna Paroni examines affective engagement within pro-Bolsonaro Facebook networks. Published in Information, Communication & Society, the research measures partisan community dynamics to understand how online political groups sustain cohesion and engagement over time.
Read moreTo help scholars overcome the persistent limitations of platform API restrictions, a new methodological paper introduces TubeStats and TokStats. These open-source tools enable researchers to generate random public samples from YouTube and TikTok, facilitating more rigorous and transparent video-based social media analysis.
Read moreHow mainstream media outlets weaponize accusations of disinformation is the focus of a new study on Italian journalism. Analyzing national newspapers, researchers Lorenzo Mosca and Fred Paxton outline how the term 'fake news' is frequently deployed as a strategic rhetorical tool for selective political amplification and delegitimization.
Read more