The project
MinDiShield is a two-year EU-funded project aimed at combating minority-related disinformation and strengthening resilience among minority communities in Europe. Through a strong collaboration between educational institutions, social organizations, media experts, and policy makers, MinDiShield addresses the urgent need to empower professionals, community leaders, and minority groups to recognize and combat harmful narratives in the digital landscape.
Objectives
- MinDiShield aims to strengthen media literacy and critical thinking skills among professionals, community leaders and minority communities.
- The project will support ethnic and religious minority communities in recognising and responding to online disinformation and harmful narratives.
- MinDiShield will develop multilingual and multicultural resources on disinformation, extremist messaging, inoculation and pre-bunking.
- The project aims to raise public awareness on how minority communities can be targeted or instrumentalised through disinformation campaigns.
- The project will promote policy recommendations on equality, non-discrimination and safer media environments, including AI and algorithmic technologies.
Expected Results
During its 24-month lifetime, MinDiShield will directly and indirectly positively impact:
- at least 40 community/religious leaders
- at least 100 minority groups members
- at least 75 professionals
- at least 215 toolkit users
- at least 15 digital ‘Community of Practice’ members
- at least 380 people through physical dissemination events
- at least 10.000 people through online/digital media channels
Furthermore, citizen inclusiveness, civic engagement, and participatory culture are fundamental aspects of the project as it will:
- Develop multicultural materials that are accessible in multiple languages (EN, FR, GR, IT, NL) and reflect diverse cultural backgrounds to reach a broader audience.
- Foster the participation of minority groups members in the project activities, and ensure that their voices are heard, their concerns and their needs are addressed throughout the project lifecycle, including evaluation.
- Engage with local communities and civil society organizations to foster participation and ownership of media literacy initiatives.
- Organize public events that encourage citizens, esp. minority group members, to engage actively with media literacy issues, promoting a sense of community involvement.
- Provide training and capacity-building opportunities for citizens and professionals to enhance their media literacy skills and encourage active participation in the fight against disinformation.
Activities
MinDiShield addresses mainly the following two areas of activities:
- Developing innovative, interactive online toolkits to provide solutions to existing and future challenges in the online environment, including disinformation, and
- Creating materials and toolkits to enable citizens to develop a critical approach to the media, and to recognise and appropriately react to disinformation.
In more detail, the project will develop training & awareness materials, and an interactive online toolkit, for professionals and for citizens belonging to ethnic minority groups, so as to build the skills of the former on addressing existing and future challenges in the online environment, especially minority-related disinformation, and to strengthen the media literacy skills of the latter to recognise and appropriately react to disinformation.
In addition, the project will identify, share, and build on best practices from innovative media literacy projects that consider a changing media ecosystem, and strengthen collaboration between different countries and regions of Europe, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, and Italy.
Resources
What we offer
Practical tools for identifying manipulation in real time
Interactive online toolkit
Access multilingual resources designed for your community
Pre-bunking digital guide
Learn techniques before disinformation spreads
Community of practice
Connect with experts across borders
01 Learn first
Getting started
Explore the online toolkit
Browse multilingual resources built for your community. Find practical guides on identifying manipulation techniques before they spread.
02 Identify threats
Recognition
Use the digital guide
Master pre-bunking strategies and spot disinformation patterns in real time. Knowledge becomes your strongest defense.
03 Build strength
Connection
Join the community of practice
Share experiences with experts and stakeholders across Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, and Italy. Together we are stronger.
Expert voices
Those who work in the field
“MinDiShield gave us the tools we needed to protect our communities from manipulation and false narratives.”
Maria Rossi
Community advocate, Italy
“The pre-bunking approach works. Our members now recognize disinformation before it takes hold.”
Ahmed Hassan
Researcher, Belgium
“A resource we have been waiting for. Finally, practical guidance in our own languages.”
Elena Papadopoulos
Educator, Greece
Impact
Reaching communities across five countries
MinDiShield operates in Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, and Italy, serving ethnic and religious minority groups with resources they can trust and understand.
find out more
Join the community building stronger defenses against disinformation across Europe.
Questions
Find answers about MinDiShield and how to get started protecting your community.
MinDiShield welcomes ethnic and religious minority groups across Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, and Italy. Anyone seeking to strengthen their community’s resilience against disinformation can access our resources.
Pre-bunking teaches you to recognize manipulation techniques before false narratives take hold. It’s about building immunity to disinformation by understanding how it works first.
Core project materials and resources will be made available in the project languages: English, French, Greek, Italian and Dutch, where applicable.
Our Community of Practice connects experts and stakeholders across borders to share what works. Members exchange strategies, discuss challenges, and build collective strength through shared experience.
Approach
MinDiShield uses a pre-bunking approach to help communities recognize and resist disinformation. The project will:
- Provide training and capacity-building opportunities for professionals to enhance their media literacy skills and inoculation against disinformation and extremist narratives.
- Develop interactive online toolkits for minority citizens to strengthen their critical thinking skills and online disinformation awareness.
- Create an online community of practice for professionals and citizens to share experiences and strategies.
- Promote policy recommendations for safeguarding equality and non-discrimination in media formats and tools, especially in the use of AI and algorithmic technologies.
- Engage citizens and communities in media literacy issues, promoting a sense of community involvement.
- Encourage citizens, esp. minority group members, to engage actively with media literacy issues, promoting a sense of community involvement.
- Provide training and capacity-building opportunities for citizens and professionals to enhance their media literacy skills and encourage active participation in the fight against disinformation.
Partners
Latest News
Contact
Have a question, partnership proposal, or interest in our activities? Get in touch with the MinDiShield team and help us build stronger, more resilient communities against online disinformation.
