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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 26

n/n Bottom line:
Misinformation is a systemic challenge. Professional fact-checkers are a key part of the solution.

If platforms won’t invest, public intervention may be essential.

Read the full report:
🔗 publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/h...
publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/b...

Fact-Checking at a Crossroads: Challenges, Alternatives, and Policy Interventions

Independent fact-checking organisations play a crucial role in combating misinformation. Nevertheless, Meta and X have scaled back their collaboration with fact-checking organisations, leading to fina...

publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 26

6/n Should governments step in?
We discuss the rationale for policy intervention & the policy options:
✅ Public funding
✅ Fact-checking requirements
✅ Certification systems
✅ Media literacy
✅ Misinformation tax

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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 26

5/n Hybrid models could work better.

Yet the broader contribution of professional fact-checkers—particularly the positive externalities they
generate for crowdsourced systems and AI models—
should be recognized and appropriately
compensated.

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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 26

4/n Alternatives aren’t enough.
Crowdsourced fact-checking (like X's Community Notes) is promising — but vulnerable to herd behavior, bias, and gaming.
AI can help detect patterns, but lacks judgment and independent source verification

1

Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 26

3/n All in all, professional fact-checking works.
It reduces political lies, corrects public misperceptions, and curbs the spread of fake news — especially when integrated into platforms.
But it's underfunded and increasingly sidelined.

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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 26

2/n Why this matters:
Platforms like Meta and X are ending partnerships with professional fact-checkers.
They’re shifting toward crowdsourcing and AI tools — but at what cost?

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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 26

🚨 1/n New Science for Policy report.
Together with Andrea Blasco, we explore the state of fact-checking in the age of AI, platform exits, and rising misinformation.
👇 A thread on the key points:

🔗 publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/h...

Fact-Checking at a Crossroads: Challenges, Alternatives, and Policy Interventions

Independent fact-checking organisations play a crucial role in combating misinformation. Nevertheless, Meta and X have scaled back their collaboration with fact-checking organisations, leading to fina...

publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu

1

Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

You can also look at the accompanying webcast interview with Dijana on VoxEU cepr.org/voxeu/vox-we...

Lost in the net? Broadband internet and mental health

How does the internet affect young people's mental health? A new paper based on the rollout of broadband internet in Italy comes to some alarming conclusions.

cepr.org

Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

9/ 💡 Policy Relevance
Our findings highlight the need to:
• Monitor mental health impacts of digital access
• Promote healthier online habits—especially for youth
• Design age-targeted public health interventions

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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

8/ 🔎 What is our contribution?
✅ Covers an entire country
✅ Uses clinical (not self-reported) diagnoses
✅ We are able to exclude that effects are only driven by a mere awareness or access effect
✅ Focuses on the early internet, before social media took over.

1

Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

7/ 🚨 Severe Outcomes Also Rise
We also observe increases in:
• Suicide attempts
• Self-harm
• Compulsory psychiatric hospitalizations
• Urgent psychiatric admissions
These effects suggest more than just greater awareness or access.

1

Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

6/ 🧠 Which Disorders?
Increased diagnoses for:
• Depression & anxiety
• Drug abuse
• Personality disorders
• Eating disorders (only for females)

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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

5/ 💥 Magnitude:
Going from 0% to 100% broadband coverage in a municipality increases prevalence of mental disorders in the younger cohort by 0.08SD

1

Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

4/ 👥 Key Result: Age Matters
• No effect on mental health for older cohorts (born 1974–1984)
• Strong negative effects for younger cohorts (born 1985–1995)
The younger you were when broadband arrived, the greater the mental health impact.

1

Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

3/ 🛠️ Identification Strategy
We exploit variation in municipalities’ distance from the pre-existing telephone network—irrelevant before the internet, but crucial after it.
This approach builds on Campante, Durante & Sobbrio (JEEA, 2018).

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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

2/ 📊 Our Data
We combine:
• The universe of mental health diagnoses from hospital records (2001–2013) providing info on the municipal residence of each patient born 1974-1995
• Municipality-level broadband access across Italy
A unique dataset on both infrastructure and public health outcomes.

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Francesco Sobbrio @fsobbrio.bsky.social · Jul 11

🧵 1/ 🚨 How does broadband internet affect the mental health of young people? Answer: forthcoming article in the Journal of Health Economics (joint with my great co-authors @Dante Donati @Ruben Durante and @dijanazet.bsky.social )
doi.org/10.1016/j.jh...

Redirecting

doi.org

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Reposted by Francesco Sobbrio

Elliott Ash @elliottash.bsky.social · May 26

Call for Papers:

The 4th Annual Zurich Workshop in AI+Economics

to be held Dec 5-6, 2025, hosted by ETH Zurich and University of Zurich.

Info: eash.cc/AI-econ
Submit (by Aug 15th): eash.cc/AI-econ-sub-2025