Forty students from more than twelve universities, both within Bulgaria and internationally, are set to participate in the final round of DisInfoHack 2026 at the GATE Institute of St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia on Monday. The event, which will be opened by caretaker Innovation and Growth Minister Irena Mladenova and caretaker Foreign Minister Nadezhda Neynsky, is a specialized hackathon format that merges academic research with practical skills for analyzing the digital information environment.
The initiative aims to engage young people in enhancing the quality and reliability of the information space. Following a successful 2025 edition and a dedicated junior event, the 2026 competition brings together the cohort of students to analyze Bulgarian media and the digital sphere. The participants are tasked with identifying disinformation narratives and developing actionable strategies to mitigate their impact across six key thematic areas: elections, wars, ecology, migration, patriotism, and crises.
The culmination of this effort—the final—will present the students’ findings, recognize the winners, and propose key recommendations for bolstering information integrity within Bulgaria. This model is also slated for implementation in Poland in May 2026. DisInfoHack operates under the umbrella of the three-year project CoDE – Countering Disinformation Environment in Bulgaria, which focuses on building information resilience through scientific methodology.
The project is managed by St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia through the GATE Institute, involving the European Studies Department and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. Collaborating partners include the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the European Software Institute, and technology firms Webcentric, Contipso, and Identrics.
Topics: #final #students #universities
