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 earned his doctorate and currently teaches 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 behavior on social media, reflecting his deep engagement with contemporary digital phenomena.
He is the founder and coordinator of the Mapping Italian News Research Program (MINE), an institutional umbrella active at the University of Urbino since 2017. MINE has investigated 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 supported by diverse organizations, including the Open Society Foundations, the Gates Foundation, and the European Commission. Within MINE, Professor Giglietto co-developed CooRnet, an open-source R package that introduced the widely applied Coordinated Link Sharing Behavior (CLSB) detection method. CooRnet is now operationally discontinued following the shutdown of Meta's CrowdTangle in August 2024, though its methodology lives on in the independently maintained CooRTweet R package, for which he is not a co-developer. While MINE remains his ongoing research line, no external grants are currently active under the program.
On the European front, Professor Giglietto played a significant role as WP4 Leader for the Horizon Europe project vera.ai, which concluded in October 2025, focusing on developing AI-based tools for countering disinformation. He also served as a Partner on PROMPT, an initiative by the European Commission dedicated to monitoring disinformation narratives in Europe, concluding in February 2026. Beyond his academic and project roles, he is an active member of prominent professional organizations including the International Communication Association (ICA), the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), and the Italian Association for Political Communication, having also contributed to the board of Research Committee 51 on Sociocybernetics of the International Sociological Association. Additionally, he is a founding partner of Digit Srl, a benefit-corporation spin-off of the University of Urbino, dedicated to developing digital platforms for sustainability, civic participation, social innovation, and scientific dissemination.
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
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. (2026). Amplifying extremes: the interplay of social media and traditional media in shaping political polarization. Handbook of Social and Communication Networks. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035325047.00023
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 moreThe latest curated academic papers, shared by Professor Giglietto, delve into critical issues concerning digital platforms, information flows, and regulation. Key topics include analyses of cross-national information attacks and troll behavior, the integration of alternative media within digital news ecosystems, and the evolving landscape of content moderation and platform regulation. Further insights cover how young adults perceive informativeness on digital platforms, the dynamics of echo chambers and radicalization on YouTube, and the characteristics of disinformation narratives in hybrid media environments.
Read moreRecently highlighted research explores the multifaceted impact of Artificial Intelligence on society and communication, as curated by Professor Giglietto. This selection examines generative AI's influence on media cognition and its persuasive capabilities, alongside strategies for reducing conspiracy beliefs through AI dialogues. Additional papers investigate public attitudes towards AI, analyze stakeholders driving the AI hype, and present new findings on AI coding agents' capacity to reproduce social science research results.
Read moreAcademic discussions on social media data access and methodological innovations have been brought to attention through Professor Giglietto's recent shares. These papers shed light on exploring temporal dynamics in digital trace data for communication research, as well as addressing the critical challenges and current state of social media data access for research, particularly in the context of election studies, considering factors such as cost, researcher proficiency, and platform permissions.
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