Repository: Maldita launches ECHO, an escape room to help young people spot disinformation and understand artificial intelligence

Maldita’s initiative aims to help young people understand how AI works and strengthen their ability to identify manipulated content and disinformation in the digital environment.

Maldita has launched ECHO, an educational escape room designed to help young people discover how artificial intelligence works and develop the key skills needed to navigate an increasingly digital environment shaped by disinformation with a critical mindset.

Through the experience, participants take on the role of content moderators for ECHO, a fictional social media platform, where they must tackle a range of challenges related to the use of artificial intelligence. Their tasks include identifying automated accounts, spotting AI-generated content and detecting inappropriate or problematic uses of the technology.

The initiative uses the escape room format to explore issues surrounding artificial intelligence and disinformation in a practical and engaging way. Participants are required to analyse content and make decisions while applying critical thinking and media literacy skills.

ECHO is also accompanied by an educational guide for teachers and educators, which provides an opportunity to explore the key issues addressed during the game in greater depth. The resource covers topics including climate disinformation, how generative AI works, information verification, emotional manipulation and content moderation on social media.

Through this initiative, Maldita aims to provide educators and young people with tools to better understand the impact of artificial intelligence on the information ecosystem and to assess more critically the content circulating on digital platforms.

At a time when distinguishing between authentic, automated and AI-generated content is becoming increasingly complex, ECHO presents media literacy as an essential tool for questioning, verifying and critically evaluating information.

Maldita has been part of the IBERIFIER consortium since its inception.

Otros artículos

AI is transforming the media ecosystem.Online course explores new challenges for journalism and media literacy

How is the media ecosystem changing in the age of Artificial Intelligence? What impact are these transformations having on the way information is produced, disseminated and shared? And what new challenges do they pose...

New season of “O Segredo do Algoritmo” (The Algorithm’s Secret), the RTP programme analysing social media systems

“O Segredo do Algoritmo”, broadcast on the RTP Notícias channel, returns with a new season this Saturday, 5 September, at 7.30 pm. The programme aims to explain and decode how the most popular content...

Ceuta crisis: Disinformation and social media can trigger large-scale movements of people

In a programme broadcast by SIC Notícias on 4 August 2026, José Moreno, a researcher at MediaLab and IBERIFIER, and Paulo Baldaia, a journalist and SIC commentator, analysed the role of social media and...

Mozambican journalists strengthen skills to tackle the challenges of digital information

The Introduction to Digital Journalism course, focused on the challenges and opportunities created by the digital transformation of journalism, concluded on 24 July in Maputo, Mozambique. The training addressed the growing importance of digital...

Fact-checking report: Immigration is the main disinformation topic in Spain and Portugal

Immigration was the most prominent disinformation topic identified in Spain and Portugal between March and May 2026. The finding comes from IBERIFIER’s quarterly report, which brings together the main false claims and disinformation narratives...