The recommendations target three key groups:

• Learners – practical tips to strengthen critical thinking and fact-checking skills.
• Adult education institutions – strategies to embed media literacy into teaching and learning.
• Decision makers – policy directions to support a more informed and resilient society.

After two years, the CheckMate project comes to an end – but the results and our recommendations can be important resources for future initiatives and for ongoing attempts of organisations to deal with disinformation.

👉 Explore the toolkit and join us in making the digital world a safer, smarter space! To the paper.

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We thank all international participants for their active participation in the final online networking event!

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The National Multiplier Event took place under the title “#DemocracyInAction. Aktionstag Gegen Desinformation”, where CheckMate had its own session. We presented all our main results, especially the training course and the web extension tool to an engaged audience.

The second event was taking place in the afternoon and was named “Hike & Talk. Demokratie im Dialog: Fake (f)or real” and was consisting in an interactive hike through the city of Innsbruck. With the participation of MEPs and local experts, the partly international event was inviting pedestrians to join them on the way to explore more about ways how to defend against Fake News and disinformation. CheckMate was involved here as we could present our developed tools and discuss with participants on the importance of fact-checking. In total, more than 100 people joined the two events making the two events and the Action Day an important dissemination event for the project.

More information can be found here (in German)

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🔗 https://checkmate.bgfe.eu

This interactive course is designed to tackle disinformation and misinformation by training participants to promote media literacy. It offers practical tools, real-life examples, and user-friendly guidance to support critical thinking and responsible digital engagement.

📘 Dive in and explore the modules — and stay tuned, as national language versions will follow soon!

The post 🎓 The Checkmate Online Training Course is Now Available in English! first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

Soon you will see here on this website the next results from this project: The web extension tool and the e-learning course, both key outcomes of the project to provide all users with the necessary tools to move safe around the net. Stay tuned!

The post Team meeting in Athens first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

In EurActiv’s Truth Talks podcast series, Dr. Taxitari analyzed the state of disinformation in Cyprus, the dominant false narratives being spread, and the crucial role of fact-checking in the fight against misinformation.

On the occasion of the World Day Against Cyber Censorship, she joined a discussion with the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection on the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC), focusing on the distinction between censorship and fact-checking, as well as the role and powers of fact-checkers on social media platforms, especially the 3PFC of Meta.

📌 Watch & listen to the discussions here:
🔗 Podcast – Truth Talks: https://bit.ly/3FALbBs
🔗 RIK – Apo Mera se Mera: https://bit.ly/4iaS2jA (01:39:00)

The post Discussions on Disinformation in Cyprus first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

This consists an important resources for our attempts to make the project results of CheckMate sustainable and available to a larger audience group also after the end of the funding period this year. Thanks to the work of Neapolis University Pafos and the scientific team, the results of CheckMate will benefit to the academic research related to the influence of disinformation to our society.

The article is fully accessible for interested readers and can be consulted here: https://www.mdpi.com/3196096  

Reference: Taxitari, L., Sitistas, T., & Gavriil, E. (2025). “Disinformation Aims to Mislead; Misinformation Thrives in Ignorance”: Insights from Experts and Non-Experts in Greek-Speaking Cyprus. Social Sciences, 14(3), 133. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030133

The post “Disinformation Aims to Mislead; Misinformation Thrives in Ignorance”: New research article published under the CheckMate Project first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

The events were highly interactive, with features such as online workshops, virtual museum tours, and networking sessions that encouraged proactive participation. Feedback highlighted the effectiveness of the sessions in improving critical thinking skills, with 75% of attendees reporting increased confidence in identifying misinformation, while 78% were inspired to explore further ways to combat it.

The events also underscored the potential of the metaverse as an innovative educational tool, particularly for fostering intergenerational dialogue and bridging the digital divide. While younger participants brought technical skills, older attendees contributed valuable historical context, enriching the discussions. Overall, the metaverse platform not only provided a novel approach to tackling misinformation but also laid the groundwork for sustained media literacy efforts, with participants expressing strong interest in ongoing engagement and collaborative learning opportunities.

Here the key outcomes overview:

And if you want to read more, please find here uploaded the Impact Report with the detailed summary:

CheckMate-Impact Assessment Report

The post Results of our Networking Events – 149 participants engaged to combat disinformation in Europe first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

• detect dis/misinformation
• question the information they encounter
• evaluate media content
• cross-check sources

This e-course will be open-source, making it accessible to a wider audience and contributing to a more informed society.

The development of a web browsing extension tool will be also an important step that will provide real-time assistance in identifying and assessing information online.

Stay tuned for more updates as we progress towards our goal of combating misinformation and promoting digital literacy!

#CheckMate #ErasmusPlus #DigitalLiteracy #Misinformation #ECourse #WebExtension

The post 🚀 CheckMate Project is progressing 🚀 first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

The best part? You can join these events from anywhere—your home, your office, or even a cozy
café for free. All you need is access to the Spatial.io platform and a bit of curiosity.

How to Participate: Quick and Easy Steps
1. Click on the registration link: https://www.spatial.io/s/Checkmate-665f8b147d893fee1d8e65cb
using your preferred web browser. (For the best experience, we recommend Google Chrome.)

2. Set up your account: If you don’t already have a Spatial.io account, don’t worry—it only takes
a minute to sign up. Just create your profile, pick a username, and accept the terms. You’re
good to go!

3. Enter the metaverse: Once you’re logged in, click the event link again, and you’ll be
transported to the CheckMate metaverse environment. Allow a few seconds for it to load,
and then dive right in.

Why This Matters
The spread of misinformation is not just an abstract problem—it’s something that affects
everyone. From undermining trust in public institutions to spreading harmful ideologies, fake
news and disinformation pose real dangers to our societies. By participating in CheckMate’s
metaverse events, you’ll gain insights into the forces shaping today’s media landscape and learn
how to be a proactive part of the solution.

So, follow project updates to learn more about the exact date and time of the metaverse
sessions and get ready for an informative, interactive, and downright fun journey with
CheckMate. Who knew fighting misinformation could be this engaging?

The post Tackling Misinformation in the Metaverse: CheckMate Project Launches October Events first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

Media Literacy is a key skill in a digital age where information manipulation is commonplace. The Best Practice Guide is a valuable resource for teachers, trainers, and anyone interested in developing critical thinking about the information they receive. The guide collects examples of effective practices already implemented across Europe and the significant contributions of those working in information education, providing concrete tools to combat disinformation.

The CheckMate project aims to introduce innovative approaches to improve adults‘ critical capacity in evaluating news. Each partner, through their work in the six involved countries, has contributed their experience, enriching the guide with innovative methods and strategies. The Best Practice Guide is the result of an international collaboration involving experts in Media Literacy. This document provides an overview of the best educational practices, offering strategies and tools to enhance adults‘ media literacy. In addition to the guide, CheckMate also plans to launch a platform in the metaverse in the coming months. This platform will offer additional resources and interactive tools, facilitating access to educational materials and promoting immersive and engaging learning.

Stay updated on the next phases of the CheckMate project and discover all the new developments! The publication of the Best Practice Guide is just the beginning of a journey aimed at strengthening adults‘ media literacy skills and creating a more informed and critical society.

Download the Best Practice Guide from our website now and don’t miss the next steps of this journey!

The post A Step Forward Against Disinformation: CheckMate’s Best Practice Guide Published! first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

Soon the main result of the first WP, the Best Practice Guide, will be ready and available online. To make this happen, the team consisting of organisations from Austria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, and Lithuania was conducting interviews and focus groups and has analysed various initiatives and projects already existing. Soon you will be able to see the results!

But we also worked together on the two core outcomes of the project: the interactive Metaverse platform as well as an innovative online training course. As soon as all these results will be ready we will be able to start to bring together adults from all over Europe as well as experts from different fields to find together new solutions to effectively fight disinformation and Fake News!

The post Ready for the next steps: CheckMate Partner Meeting in Paris first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

In Greece, a very interesting discussion took place with 20 participants, all very interested in the topics of misinformation and disinformation, coming from the general public, many of them working in the school education sector.

The participants expressed their experiences and views on the spread of fake news and the ways of tackling the phenomenon. The majority of the participants expressed a sensitivity in the search of the truth and the identification of possible ways to reach valid information on the media. Critical thinking and cross-checking were highlighted as common practices and media education as a common need in order to enhance media literacy and be able to handle such issues.

A big discussion was also made on the topic of social media. The anonymity that social media offer makes it a vast online environment where everyone could post their truth and re-post easily fake news according to their beliefs and values. While social media consists a valuable tool for communication and interaction, it seems that it is also a fake news medium.

The post The CheckMate focus groups: Discussing about misinformation and disinformation across Europe first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

The research conducted by all partners so far has already let to promising results. Through official reports, interviews, and data analysis, we have collected crucial issues and identified media literacy competencies on which to develop the next project content. We identified priority areas in need of intervention and mapped the status of policies and legal frameworks in the countries involved.

One of the most significant findings of the research was the acknowledgement of the importance of a holistic approach to tackle media literacy, which is not limited to a technical understanding of media, but also includes the ability to critically evaluate information, recognise reliable sources, and understand the social and cultural implications of digital media and the effects they produce in daily life.

The full results of this research will be made public soon, offering a solid foundation for the development of targeted educational actions and methodologies.

We believe that our guide, as an important first step in the project, will have an impact on educational policies and teaching practices and will help to shape a future in which citizens will be more aware of navigating and understanding the vast digital media landscape. There is still a lot of work ahead, but we are only at the beginning of a fantastic journey!

The post CheckMate – New releases coming soon! first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

The aim of the CheckMate project is to create networks and to then raise awareness about the growing problem of disinformation in Europe.

In Austria, the coordinator BürgerInnen Forum Europa conducted interviews with several well-known experts and also realised a focus group with citizens to get insights on the biggest topics and problems that the topic of Fake News and disinformation is creating in our society.

The results were quite dramatic. There is ongoing a real “campaign of disinformation” run by authoritarian countries, especially by Russia. The “troll factories” are massively destabilising democracy in Europe – with negative consequences for a pluralistic and open-minded society.

On social media channels such as TikTok the level of non-verified information is getting every day more and more and it is getting harder for influencers that try to keep up for example European and democratic values. The algorithm and the echo-chambers are creating parallel worlds in the net, where conspiracy theories, lies, discrimination and truly authoritarian values are happily shared among users.

The CheckMate consultations in Austria showed a clear picture: Disinformation and Fake News is a threat to our life how we are used to it. It can destroy our open and inclusive societies, damage the democratic institutions, and create massive negative consequences for Europe and the EU.

Now we need to act – and we at the CheckMate project will try to take up these results and work on a broad network against disinformation: Not just to raise awareness about fake news, but also to help to save our democracy how we know it.

The post Consultations: Our democracy in Europe is in danger – Disinformation as a growing problem in our society first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.

Now we had our Kick Off Meeting in Vienna. The motivated team from six member states of the EU is ready to bring together citizens and experts and further develop and share already existing fact-checking tools to combat fake news and dis- and misinformation throughout Europe!

It is an honour for the BürgerInnen Forum Europa to coordinate this project and to work on this important topic with this nice, international team! Stay tuned for more news coming soon!

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As the rate of both mis- and disinformation follows an upward trend, all stakeholders are forced to cooperate to set up mechanisms that will protect citizens from their consequences, by addressing the problem at its roots. Responding to this, CheckMate looks to raise awareness, turning alienation into constructive engagement, among the topic’s stakeholders, fostering social dialogue and enabling new and innovative solutions. Furthermore, CheckMate shall train adults of any social, age, religious, economic and ethnic background, paying special attention to vulnerable and marginalised groups, to be able to critically filter, investigate sources, fact-check content, and categorise all information received, turning chaos into critical and analytical capacities. In that effort, CheckMate shall integrate and promote the use of innovative technological solutions.

One of the central aims of this project is to bring more attention and encourage the development of projects that will support innovative, community-centred approaches to combating mis/disinformation, fake news and propaganda, and especially the strengthening of competencies in media literacy and critical capacities in detecting false information.

For the implementation of WP2, research institutes active in the field of education will collaborate with the rest to identify, map and analyse best practices, local attitudes, policies, ideas, obstacles, etc. through interviews, focus groups etc. Results will be able to be replicated and fine tuned in the context of other target groups (e.g. adult education sector, university students, youth, etc.) in different communities.

Hence, the design of the activities and results will facilitate uptake by other organisations and lead to other synergies, either in media information or education. In the context of WP3, CheckMate will establish a network of stakeholders from various industries in pursuit of raising awareness, promoting social dialogue, and creating new spaces of collaboration that shall incubate tomorrow’s solutions. To produce the necessary results, this project will gather the expertise of CSOs, educators, consulting agencies, web developers, local authorities, and research institutes, journalists, news channels, other media experts, etc. In WP3, partners will collaborate with web developers with knowledge in advanced technologies to create a metaverse platform to host the CheckMate network.

In the context of WP4, regarding the production of educational material, CSOs will have to collaborate with educators to create a training course, which will remain publicly available and will be offered as an open education resource to the community, allowing new synergies to build on top of it. Furthermore, for the production of the web browsing extension with different functions to support the course’s taught strategies, partners will collaborate with web developers. Both in WP3 and in WP4, the project is making an attempt to further promote the use of digital solutions in modern problems, expecting that it will become an example for future reference and synergies on multiple levels, target groups and issue areas.

Lastly, the CheckMate e-course could be transferred and implemented as an extracurricular information – media literacy course in any educational environment. To this end, the consortium will identify and reach synergies with schools, VET and adult providers and Universities to provide its educational materials and increase its impact.

The post About the project first appeared on BürgerInnen Forum Europa.