A news piece by Conor Gallagher in The Irish Times last week focused on the Vigilant project and the innovative work to help law enforcement tackle disinformation that can lead to criminal activity. The VIGILANT project brings together 17 leading European partners from academia, industry, government research centres, and four Police Authorities in an interdisciplinary consortium to combat this threat to societal cohesion and democracy. The research is exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used as an “early warning” system to alert police to emerging threats stemming from social media.
At its core, Vigilant is developing a suite of AI-powered tools that will enable police authorities across Europe to detect and investigate online disinformation linked to criminal behaviours. These behaviours include the incitement of violence against migrants, the spread of false medical treatments, terrorist fundraising, and the dissemination of extremist ideologies.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Dr Brendan Spillane, ADAPT Assistant Professor at UCD and the project’s coordinator, explained that Vigilant “is a platform of tools which is designed for European police authorities to detect, analyse and investigate disinformation that links to criminal activities.”
Unlike current approaches, which tend to be reactive, Vigilant will enable a more proactive stance. This capability is especially important in light of recent incidents such as the Dublin riots of November 2023, which were partly fueled by misinformation shared online after a violent incident.
The Vigilant team is deeply committed to developing responsible AI. Project Manager Eva Power stressed that the system will only analyse publicly available content and has been designed without facial recognition capabilities to ensure it aligns with privacy and human rights standards.
“We think we’re the right type of organisation to be developing something like this,” said Dr Spillane. “A lot of us are coming from universities which are typically socially liberal, very conscientious, ethically-minded organisations.”
Currently, four police forces across the EU are working closely with the project team and will be the first to deploy a live version of the Vigilant software, which is expected to roll out in about 10 months. An Garda Síochána are not part of this pilot group, but are members of the wider “community of early adopters.”
The Vigilant platform will allow authorities to temporarily monitor high-risk areas of social media activity in much the same way police might deploy additional patrols to a physical hotspot. This approach ensures targeted, ethical use while helping law enforcement stay ahead of potential threats.
The full news piece is available on the Irish Times website.
