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BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.7. Digital ecosystem, disinformation and the need for media literacy and critical thinking
Social media amplifies misinformation, polarisation and hate speech. Algorithms prioritise engagement over truth, echo chambers reinforce existing opinions, and emotional triggers such as fear or indignation make young users vulnerable to manipulated narratives. In Germany, despite advanced regulation, young people lack the critical skills to navigate this environment reflectively and democratically.
UnfakeSoMe is a game-based media literacy practice following a play-reflect-apply model. Youth workers from Germany, France and Austria co-designed an open Digital Toolkit with more than 14 low-tech games, event guides and verification checklists in three languages. Young people practise Lateral Reading, spot bias and clickbait, and experience algorithmic filter bubbles in immersive simulations.
Unfake your Social Media (UnfakeSoMe) is a transnational non-formal education practice coordinated by Impact Grid e.V. (Berlin) with partners in France and Austria. Since 2023, teams of youth workers have co-designed an open Digital Toolkit of more than 14 games built around three strands: Lateral Reading, media literacy tools and social media simulations. Each game ends in a reflection round. The materials were piloted with 40 young people in the Unfake Your News mobility and are published in three languages under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
The digital environment acts as an amplifier of misinformation, polarisation and hate speech, weakening intercultural coexistence and democratic participation. Algorithmic biases that prioritise engagement over accuracy, echo chambers, confirmation bias and emotional triggers increase young users' vulnerability, while AI-generated content adds new challenges for transparency and critical interpretation.
Misinformation fuels processes of othering and symbolic exclusion of vulnerable groups, especially where socioeconomic stratification intersects with migrant origin. Regulation alone, such as the German NetzDG, does not close the skills gap. Young people need practical competencies to navigate complex media environments.
The practice addresses Challenge A7 (digital ecosystem, misinformation and media literacy) by building critical thinking and verification skills in young people and by training youth workers as media literacy multipliers, using open, adaptable resources that can be reused across Europe.
The practice follows a play-reflect-apply cycle. Participants play short games such as Real or Fake?, Memearazzi or Filter Bubble Run, then reflect with the facilitator using scoring systems and reflection rubrics, and finally apply techniques like Lateral Reading to real content. The toolkit was developed in four phases: ideation, prototyping, piloting with young people, and refinement based on reflection sheets and observation diaries.
UnfakeSoMe Digital Toolkit (2025): Open Educational Resource with game manuals and verification checklists
Educational resource
The Digital Toolkit is the main output of UnfakeSoMe. It is conceived entirely as an Open Educational Resource under a CC BY 4.0 licence and brings together more than 14 original online and offline games, each with rules, scoring system and reflection rubrics, plus practical verification checklists that young people can use to evaluate sources on their own. The games are organised in three strands: Lateral Reading (fact-checking by comparing multiple sources), media literacy tools (identifying bias, clickbait and manipulated content) and social media simulations (experiencing algorithmic reinforcement and echo chambers). The toolkit is deliberately low-tech, so that press clippings and game tokens can replace digital infrastructure, and it includes notes for adapting news examples to local political and linguistic contexts. Available in English, German and French.
Teaching staff, Students, Professionals, General Public
Event Guides for facilitators (English, German, French)
Teaching guide
The Event Guides are implementation protocols written for youth workers and educators who want to run UnfakeSoMe sessions with their own groups. They contain step-by-step instructions for preparing and facilitating the games, guidance on moderating the post-game reflection rounds that consolidate critical learning, and notes for adjusting news examples to the local political and linguistic context. Because the guides assume no advanced technical training, they support immediate uptake by third parties in non-formal and informal education settings. They are available in English, German and French and are published as open educational resources. The modular format of the games also allows them to be integrated into formal education curricula, for example in workshops on source verification, algorithmic bias and ethical communication online.
Teaching staff, Professionals
Game ecosystem: Filter Bubble Run, Busted!, INKvestigate, Memearazzi, Real or Fake?, Bingo and others
Interactive game
The more than 14 original games form the interactive core of the practice. Filter Bubble Run is an immersive simulation in which participants navigate a simulated digital environment and make real-time decisions under the pressure of algorithmic preference reinforcement, so that the power of the platform becomes visible. Real or Fake? and Memearazzi train participants to identify bias, clickbait and manipulated content, and Memearazzi additionally invites them to produce their own informed memes as counter-narratives. Other games, such as Busted!, INKvestigate and Bingo, are designed to be low-tech so that they can be played where technical resources are limited. Each game includes a scoring system and reflection rubric so that facilitators can observe learning progress. The games were piloted with 40 young people in the Unfake Your News mobility and refined from participant feedback.
Teaching staff, Students, General Public
Approach Document (2024): theoretical and pedagogical framework
Digital publication
The Approach Document sets out the conceptual basis of UnfakeSoMe: the play-reflect-apply model and the four theoretical frameworks on which the games are built, namely constructivist theory (participants construct meaning through interaction), Kolb's experiential learning (cycles of action and reflection), gamification theory (challenges, feedback and scoring to sustain motivation) and Bandura's social learning (peer learning and observation of ethical online behaviour). The practice description also refers to the typologies of misinformation mapped in the ideation phase and to the participatory action research approach used for co-design and evaluation with youth workers from Germany, France and Austria. The document is useful for educators and researchers who want to adapt or evaluate game-based media literacy interventions.
Teaching staff, Researchers, Professionals
https://unfakesocial.eu/3d-flip-book/unfake-approach-document-english/