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Description
This paper examines the technological requirements for detecting disinformation influence through the lens of marketing, information integrity, and strategic communications. The study is grounded in the assumption that the identification of disinformation influence is not only a matter of content verification, but also of understanding how narratives are designed, targeted, amplified, and perceived across audiences. In this sense, a marketing perspective is relevant because it draws attention to segmentation, message positioning, behavioural impact, and the mechanisms through which influence is operationalised in the information environment.
The paper uses evidence from Bulgarian hackathon-based initiatives focused on countering disinformation, information integrity, and strategic communications. In particular, the analysis is informed by the DisInfoHack format and the wider CoDE ecosystem, which combine research, training, prototyping, and applied problem-solving in the Bulgarian information context. The study also takes into account the broader institutional and expert environment in Bulgaria, where strategic communications and technological approaches to information integrity have become increasingly prominent.
On this basis, the paper identifies a set of core technological requirements for detecting disinformation influence. These include the capacity to monitor narrative dynamics across platforms, map influence pathways, assess source credibility, support audience-sensitive analysis, integrate human expertise with data-driven methods, and provide interpretable outputs for strategic decision-making. Particular attention is paid to the need for technologies that do not simply detect false content, but also reveal patterns of influence relevant to public communication, institutional resilience, and security-oriented responses.
The paper contributes to the discussion on disinformation detection by connecting technological design requirements with marketing logic, strategic communications, and the practical lessons emerging from Bulgarian hackathon-based experimentation. It offers a framework for thinking about information influence not only as a technical problem, but also as a problem of communication strategy, audience targeting, and decision support.