Fabio Giglietto

Fabio Giglietto is Full Professor of Internet Studies in the Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, where he also earned his doctorate. His research sits at the intersection of computational social science, the analysis of digital platforms and political communication, with a particular focus on information disorders and coordinated behaviour on social media. His teaching at Urbino has included Generative AI and Media and Digital Social Network Analysis.

In 2017 he founded the Mapping Italian News Research Program (MINE) at the University of Urbino, which he has coordinated since. MINE studies Italian media coverage and the impact of social media on electoral processes, public opinion and health information. Within the programme he co-developed CooRnet with Nicola Righetti and Luca Rossi, the open-source R package that introduced the Coordinated Link Sharing Behavior detection method, applied internationally by researchers, journalists and fact-checkers. Operational development of CooRnet ended after Meta shut down CrowdTangle in August 2024, though the methodology it introduced continues to inform independent downstream tools such as CooRTweet.

His European research record includes service as Work Package 4 Leader of the Horizon Europe project vera.ai, which developed AI-based tools for countering disinformation, and as a partner on PROMPT, a European Commission project monitoring disinformation narratives in Europe; both concluded by early 2026. As an independent expert he was a member of the Joint Research Centre expert group on systemic risks of very large online platforms, a study contributing to the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency under Article 40(12) of the Digital Services Act, where he provided scientific oversight, monitored the platform data-access request process and authored the group's summary reports. He also served as an evaluator and rapporteur for the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. His 2025 working paper on Meta's political content reduction policy was cited in a written question to the European Commission tabled in the European Parliament and drew national media coverage in Italy from outlets including Il Sole 24 Ore, Il Resto del Carlino and Open.

Giglietto is a member of the International Communication Association, the Association of Internet Researchers and the Italian Association for Political Communication, and has served on the board of Research Committee 51 on Sociocybernetics of the International Sociological Association. He is also a founding partner of Digit Srl, a benefit-corporation spin-off of the University of Urbino Carlo Bo that develops digital platforms for sustainability, civic participation, social innovation and scientific dissemination.