The Università degli Studi di Firenze welcomed researchers, practitioners, and policymakers for a two-day conference, on May 15–16, 2025, marking the culmination of theInfoLead project, an initiative funded by the European Media & Information Fund (EMIF). The project, led by Nicole Stremlau (Oxford University), Erik Longo (University of Florence), Matti Pohjonen (University of Helsinki), and a dedicated international team, has explored new ways to understand and respond to ”information disorders” in a rapidly changing media landscape.
The aim of the project has been to equip judges and policymakers with the necessary information literacy to ensure that when they develop or implement policies they do so with the highest levels of information literacy of the latest developments in debates on AI, content moderation, hate speech and dis/misinformation. The project has included two in-person executive training courses held in University of Oxford, the development of case studies and a toolbox and HSSH work on a “information disorder” simulator/game.
The final event for the Infolead project included previous participants from across Europe, including legal experts, human rights advocates, and media professionals, who shared their experiences about the “Future of Democracy in the Digital Era.” The Florence event marked not just the end of the project, but the beginning of new conversations and collaborations that will extend the project beyond the initial funding.
The event also included a participatory gaming session led by Matti Pohjonen and Aleksi Knuutila, exploring innovative approaches to information literacy through digital games. The game, Infodemic Inc.developed by HSSH is an educational game that simulates complex and often ambiguous tradeoffs social media platforms need to make when deciding what types of content to remove in the face of the emerging "information disorder" – disinformation, generative AI, bots, hate speech. It can be played on your mobile phones or laptops. You can test the game here: https://infodemic.gg/.