At the conclusion of the DisInfoHack 2026 final event held at the GATE Institute of Sofia University on Monday, the institution’s rector, Prof. Georgi Valchev, emphasized the necessity for young people to cultivate robust critical thinking skills. According to the rector, developing the ability to discern credible information from misleading content is paramount in the current media landscape.
He stated that initiatives such as DisInfoHack play a vital role in narrowing the gap between established facts and deliberate manipulation within today’s complex information environment. Prof. Valchev urged the youth to prepare actively for the challenges of the modern era, stressing that they must take a leading role in fostering a sustainable information ecosystem.
He cautioned that the risk of disinformation extends even to seemingly reliable sources. DisInfoHack itself is an initiative stemming from the three-year project titled Countering Disinformation Environment (Ecosystem) in Bulgaria (CoDE). This project aims to strengthen overall information resilience through a structured scientific methodology.
The effort is spearheaded by Sofia University, utilizing the GATE Institute, the European Studies Department of the Faculty of Philosophy, and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. The university collaborates on this endeavor with the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the European Software Institute. The event underscores the academic commitment of the university sector to combating the spread of misinformation.
Topics: #university #rector #critical
This focus on critical thinking is more important now than ever before.