PrEventing and Combating onLine and offline hate speech and dIsinformation through multidisciPlinary innovation, education, and awareneSs in Europe

ongoing

ECLIPSE is a collaborative project aimed at combating hate speech and mis/disinformation both online and offline across Europe, combining advanced technologies with insights from social, behavioural, criminological, and legal sciences. The project partners with law enforcement agencies, civil society organisations, and international bodies will develop innovative tools and strategies for analysing harmful content and deploying counter-narratives. These tools include natural language processing, social network analysis, and natural language generation technologies. In addition, ECLIPSE enhances the engagement of target groups through innovative training methods like digital storytelling, gamification, and augmented/extended reality, designed to increase knowledge and awareness about the societal impacts of these phenomena. These efforts aim to foster resilience among professionals and citizens, helping them identify and address hatred and fake news in both virtual and real-world contexts. A key objective of ECLIPSE is to equip stakeholders with validated and modern tools, methods, and curricula, enabling them to effectively tackle hate speech and mis/disinformation in a culturally sensitive manner. The project also seeks to standardise European approaches for gathering data and implementing countermeasures, all while respecting fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and privacy. Finally, ECLIPSE will produce policy briefs with actionable recommendations for European and national policymakers, supporting them in countering hate speech and fake news online and offline. Through collaboration with networks across Europe, ECLIPSE will work in multiple languages and towards scalable, sustainable solutions to combat these societal challenges at the national, EU, and global levels. The project's impact will be felt through pilots in Belgium, Germany/Austria, Italy, the UK, Spain, and Türkiye with a vision for broader adoption across Europe and beyond.